US1888300A - Engine starter - Google Patents

Description

Nov. 22, 1932. F. A. VASTANO 1,838,300

ENGINE STARTER Filed Marbh 22, 1952 I .9 4c 11 o 5 I 15 '1 INVENTOR,

Patented Nov. 22, 1932 UNETED STATES FREDERICK A. VASTANO, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY ENGINE STARTER Application filed March 22, 1932. Serial No. 600,441.

This invention relates to starting mechanism for internal combustion engines, and particularly to starting mechanism to be used in connection with internal combustion engines employed in the so-called kicker or propelling means for small boats. The principal object is to provide, in combination with the fly-wheel or equivalent rotary element of such an engine, a starting mechanism in which the power may be stored up by hand and then readily released for starting the engine. Another objectis so to construct the starting mechanism that it may be readily applied to said element and then removed when the engine has been started, being for that purpose as compact and light in weight as possible. Another object is to construct the part of said mechanism whereby the power is manually stored up so as to afford an effective grip to the operator and a convenient means for applying the mechanism to or removing it from said element.

Tn the drawing,

Fig.1 is a side elevation, partly in section, showing the flyw ieel and timing disk of the engine and my starter mechanism operatively associated therewith;

2 is plan thereof;

F 3 is a fragmentary side elevation of thr hing-drum and fly-wheel;

. at shows a modification of the handle;

rig. 5 shows an adapter by which the engine shaft. may be extended if necessary to accommodate my mechanism. I

in the drawing, 1 is the projecting shaft and 2 the fly-wheel or equivalent rotary element of the engine, and 3 is a part of the engine, as its timing disk, with reference to which the fly-wheel rotates.

On the shaft is arranged a handle structure comprising a sleeve 4 and the handle 5. The sleeve is revoluble on the shaft and has a :lower flange 4a, an upper flange l0 screwed onto its threaded portion 45, and a square head 4d upon which is fitted the square central socket of the handle 5, which is here in the form of a wheel.

The flanges la and form with flanges 6a of a hollow drum 6 the races for the balls 7 of ball-bearings.

Contained in the drum and secured at its ends thereto and to the sleeve of the handle structure is a helical spring 8.

Gn the top of the drum is a series of ratchet teeth 9 concentric therewith, and arranged in a radial housing 5a of the handle structure is a pawl 10 normally held engaged with said ratchet teeth by a spring 11, said pawl being adapted to be withdrawn from the ratchet teeth by a grip in the form of a lever 12 which is connected with the pawl by a link 13 and has its grip-portion 12a underlying the annular handle or grip portion of the wheel 5.

The mechanism comprising the sleeve drum and spring is unitary in character, an if the handle is pinned, as at 5:0, to the sleeve it will form a part of such unitary mechanism. Such mechanism is adapted to ,be placed on or removed from the shaft, for which purpose the wheel 5 forms a convenient means for lifting it with the use of both hands.

On the lower face of the drum are ratchet teeth and on the top face of the element 2 other ratchet teeth, both arranged concentrically of the shaft and coact-ive with each other. These teeth form abutments coactive with each other to resist rotation of the drum relatively to said element when the handle structure is rotated in the direction in which the pawl 10 clicks idly over the teeth 9 and formed to cam past each other when said element is rotated in said direction by engine power, as when the engine has been started. Thus the acting and camming faces 14a and 15a, respectively, arefaced revers'ely to the corresponding faces of the teeth 9.

At 16 is a locking pin or detent removably arranged in holes 1a and 3a of the drum and part 3.

Instead of the wheel 5 the handle may take the form of a lever 17 as shown in Fig. 4.

Operation.The parts being assembled as shown in Fig. 1, so that the ratchet teeth 14,-15 prevent the drum from rotating in the direction of winding up the spring (or here clockwise), the handle structure 4-5 is rotated by hand in said direction, thus winding for lifting it.

the spring, said structure being held from rerotation, thus to preserve the spring energy stored up, b the engagement of pawl 10 with ratchet 9. f the resistance in the engine is not sufficient to prevent the fly-wheel from rotating in this 0 eration pin 16 ma be applied to lock the fly-wheel to the timing disk 3. Having thus stored up power in the spring (and having removed pin 16 if it has been made to lock the fly-wheel and timing disk together), and while now manually holding said structure from re-rotation the operator retracts the pawl 10 by pressure on lever 12, whereupon the energy of the spring will be freed to rotate the fiy-wheel and hence start the engine, the abutments 14-45 clicking idly past each other. The unit 468 may now be removed, and if the handle 5 is a part thereof it will form a convenient means If the shaft 1 is not upwardly prolonged far enough to form a proper support for the sleeve 4 the extension or adapter 18 shown in Fig. 5 may be screwed onto its upper end.

Having thus fully described my invention what I claim is:

1. In combination, with the rotary element of an internal combustion engine, said element having a projecting axial shaft, a unitary starting mechanism for the engine cornprising a handle structure having a sleeve to fit over and revolve upon the shaft, a drum revoluble on the sleeve and a helical spring in the drum connected at its ends to the drum and sleeve, said drum having ratchet teeth concentric with the sleeve, and a manually disengageable pawl normally engaged with said teeth and carried by the handle structure, said element and drum havingcoactive abutments adapted to resist rotation of the drum relatively to said clement when the handle structure is rotated in the direction in which the pawl clicks idly over said ratchet teeth and formed to cam past each other when said element is rotated in said direction under engine power.

2. In combination, with the rotary element of an internal combustion engine, said element having a projecting shaft, a unitary starting mechanism for the engine comprising a handle structure having a sleeve to fit over and revolve upon the shaft and a handle remote from the sleeve, a drum revoluble on the sleeve and a helical spring in the drum connected at its ends to the drum and sleeve, said drum having ratchet teeth concentric with the sleeve, a pawl device normally enlgaged with said teeth and carried by the andle structure and having a manually operated grip adjacent the handle of the latter,

said element and drum having coactive abutments adapted to resist rotation of the drum relatively to said element when the handle structure is rotated in the direction in which the pawl clicks idly over said ratchet teeth and formed to cam past each other when said element rotates in said direction under engine power.

3. In combination, with the rotary element of an internal combustion engine, said element having a projecting shaft, a unitary starting mechanism for the engine comprising, with a handle structure itself comprisin" a sleeve to fit over and revolve upon the shaft and a handle fixed against axial displacement relatively to the sleeve, a drum revoluble on the sleeve and a helical spring in the drum connected at its ends to the drum and sleeve, said drum having ratchet teeth concentric with the sleeve, and a manually disengageable pawl normally engaged with said teeth and carried by said handle structure, said element and drum having coactive abutments adapted to resist rotation of the drum relatively to said clement when the handle structure is rotated in the direction in which the pawl clicks idly over said ratchet teeth and formed to cam past each other when said element rotated in said direction under engine power.

A portable starter mechanism for the rotary element of an internal combustion engine having as a fixed axial part of said element a projecting shaft, said mechanism comprising a handle structure having a sleeve to fit over and revolve upon the shaft, 0. hollow drum revoluble on the sleeve and confined thereby against axial displacement relatively thereto, a helical spring in the drum connected at its ends to the drum and FREDERICK A. VASTANO.

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