Patent ID: 9726138
Date: 2017-08-08
CPC Classifications: F02N,F16D,Y10T

Claim:
1. An engine starter comprising: a motor; a pinion-mobile component that includes a pinion gear, which can be engaged to a ring gear provided at an engine side, and is formed in such a way that the pinion-mobile component is linked to an output shaft of the motor by a helical spline and can be slid in an axis direction of the output shaft; and a solenoid switch that includes: a pushing mechanism for shifting the pinion-mobile component to a position where the pinion-gear is engaged to the ring gear; and a switch for passing or cutting off an electric current supplied to the motor; wherein the pinion-mobile component includes an overrunning clutch and a breaking mechanism; the overrunning clutch which is idled when the pinion gear, which is engaged to the ring gear, is driven by the engine via the ring gear so as to be rotated at a rotational speed which is higher than a rotational speed of the output shaft; and the breaking mechanism in which the overrunning clutch breaks a transmission of a torque, which is generated in accordance with a rotation of the motor and is transmitted to the ring gear, when a value of the torque is a predetermined condition value with respect to a direction where the torque is transmitted to the ring gear, wherein the breaking mechanism includes a pair of transmission components which are faced to a surface being vertical with respect to an axis direction, and a spring component presses the pair of transmission components in the axis direction, and the spring component is a plate spring, and is provided on an outer surface of a helical spline, which is formed on the pinion-mobile component, or on an outer surface of a clutch-inner portion of the overrunning clutch, wherein an initial load, which is applied by the plate spring and presses the pair of transmission components in the axis direction, is set as a load that doesn't break the transmission of the torque by the torque which is generated in the axis direction when the output of the engine is increased at a normal start condition, the pair of transmission components include torque-transmission surfaces which respectively have predetermined inclinations with respect to the surface being vertical in the axis direction, and the torque-transmission surfaces have shapes in which an angle-degree at a torque non-transmission side is as an angle more gently sloping than an angle-degree at torque transmission side.