Patent ID: 7712388

Claim:
A starter provided with a starter motor and formed to start up an internal combustion engine provided with a ring gear, comprising: a drive shaft having an axial direction along which the drive shaft extends and a radial direction perpendicular to the axial direction and having an outer periphery formed with shaft splines formed for transmission of a drive power transmitted from the starter motor and stoppers protruding from the outer periphery in the axial direction, the stoppers being positionally closer to the ring gear than the shaft splines in the axial direction; an overrunning clutch functioning as a one-way clutch and having an inner periphery wall formed by a bore, the drive shaft being inserted through the bore such that the overrunning clutch is movable with respect to the drive shaft in the axial direction and both the shaft splines and the stoppers are located in the bore, the inner periphery being formed with barrel splines engageable with the shaft splines of the drive shaft, the barrel splines having axial one ends operative to be brought into abutting engagement with the stoppers in the axial direction; and a pinion gear integrally disposed on the overrunning clutch to be brought into or out of meshing engagement with the ring gear of the internal combustion engine, wherein the shaft splines and the barrel splines are formed to have a first clearance between tooth tops of the shaft splines in the radial direction and tooth bottoms of the barrel splines in the radial direction and the first clearance is set to be less than a backlash caused between the shaft splines and the barrel splines; and the stoppers and the inner bore are formed to have a second clearance between the stoppers and the inner periphery wall sectioning the bore in the radial direction and the second clearance is set to be less than the backlash.