Starter Motor
Motor starters are usually fitted with a trip device which deals with overcurrents from just above normal running current of the motor to the stall current. The aim should be for the device to match the characteristics of the motor so that full advantage may be taken of any overload capacity. Equally, the trip device must open the starter contactor before there is any danger of permanent damage to the motor.
Contactors are not normally designed to cope with the clearance of short-circuit conditions, and it is therefore usual for the contactor to be backed up by HRC fuses or by circuit-breaker.
The arrival on the scene of very compact motor starters and the need to provide proper back-up protection to them has posed a problem. BS EN 60947-4-1 (1992) (previously BS 4941) ‘Motor starters’, describes three types of co-ordination, the most onerous condition (type C) requiring that under fault conditions there shall be no damage to the starter or to the overload relay. The usual back-up device will be the HRC fuse. It is important that the user check with the manufacturer's catalogue to ensure that the correct fuse is used to secure this co-ordination.
The starter motor in your automobile is a DC motor. If you were to accidentally reverse the battery polarity, the DC motor would still rotate in the same direction. Reversing polarity of the battery will not cause the motor to rotate in the opposite direction.
To reverse the direction of rotation of this type of motor, either the current through the stator winding or the current through the armature must be reversed. Reversing both of them will result in the same magnetic polarities between the armature and the stator poles. This results in the same direction of rotation.
The industry's standard for reversing the direction of rotation of a DC motor is to reverse the direction of the current through the armature. When a DC motor has more than one set of windings, shunt and series, as well as interpoles, the currents through all the stator windings would need to be reversed in order to change direction of rotation. This is far more complicated than merely reversing armature current.
All engines require a toyota starter motor to turn them over before firing. In conventional vehicles, this is a straightforward, but powerful, direct-current electric motor. When the starter switch is activated by the driver, current flows to a solenoid attached to the starter motor. This current moves a lever into the solenoid that then causes a cogwheel of the motor to mesh with the teeth on the circumference of the flywheel. At the same time, an electrical contact is closed to allow a large current to flow and rotate the starter motor as well as the engaged flywheel. Typically, currents of hundreds of amperes are required to start the engine and are provided by the battery, which is generally a 12-V lead–acid module. The battery is recharged by the alternator–rectifier combination when the engine is running. Automotive batteries have improved enormously over the years and have far longer lives than formerly, even though they may be called upon to power many more functions. Although guarantees may be for two or three years, in practice batteries often operate for eight years or longer before failing. Moreover, modern car batteries no longer require periodic ‘topping-up’ with de-ionized water. Further information on the evolution of the lead–acid battery is given in Section 7.4, Chapter 7.