How to autostart a CS 6/1?

[listeroidsusa1]

My last batch of engines came with the starter, ring gear, alternator, radiator, fan, and water pump factory installed. This makes an engine much easier to "autostart" using a simple "brick" plc.

There are also electronic governors on Ebay made by Barber-Coleman that hold frequency within .25 of 1%. Barber -Coleman's governors have been bought out by Woodward Governor. I got mine for $200 complete with throttle actuator, control box, and magnetic pickup and am installing it on the 20/1 that will be pulling a 20 kw 3 phase ST head to run my shop, with 2 cnc lathes, a 20 x 100 engine lathe, 2 milling machines, a Miller 300 amp welder, 2 bandsaws, a 18" x 36" Gould & Eberhardt gear hobber, and assorted other machine tools.

This governor/actuator setup is like a modern version of the actuators used on the original Lister SOM generator sets.

Mike

[snail]

Earlier in this thread ,I asked if a Chev starter would spin a 12/2 under compression. The answers were generally positive, so I tried it. The answer is now definitely yes!
I mounted a 13"(?) flex plate  from a 308 Holden (an Aussie- made Chev) on the crank, and used its matching gear reduction starter (which has 1.4 kW written on the side). The result is that it starts on the first compression stroke, even if the motor is stopped between the two "close" compressions (it's a 180 degree twin remember).
One problem was that being such a small diameter, the flex plate didn't allow for the starter to sit inboard of the flywheel. The other problem was that due to the engine mounting method, rigging up a sufficiently rigid outboard starter mounting looked a bit daunting. The result was a starter mounted directly to the crank by means of a 2" ID x 4" OD ball bearing. A piece of RHS bolted to the bearing housing carries the starter motor, and its outer end is supported to take the torque when the power is applied.Not the most elegant of solutions, but it sure works 

Cheers,

Brian

[jtodd]

Earlier in this thread ,I asked if a Chev starter would spin a 12/2 under compression. The answers were generally positive, so I tried it. The answer is now definitely yes!
I mounted a 13"(?) flex plate  from a 308 Holden (an Aussie- made Chev) on the crank, and used its matching gear reduction starter (which has 1.4 kW written on the side). The result is that it starts on the first compression stroke, even if the motor is stopped between the two "close" compressions (it's a 180 degree twin remember).
One problem was that being such a small diameter, the flex plate didn't allow for the starter to sit inboard of the flywheel. The other problem was that due to the engine mounting method, rigging up a sufficiently rigid outboard starter mounting looked a bit daunting. The result was a starter mounted directly to the crank by means of a 2" ID x 4" OD ball bearing. A piece of RHS bolted to the bearing housing carries the starter motor, and its outer end is supported to take the torque when the power is applied.Not the most elegant of solutions, but it sure works 

Cheers,

Brian

I'd love to see some pictures.

I've found that my own rig of a flexplate and a Chevy starter mounted on a belt worked quite well, and the engine fires right up.  The problem is that this arrangement really sounds (and is!) dangerous - it's like a circular saw, and it's outer edge is 3 feet away from the flywheel which adds to the general "danger zone distance" of the whole rig.  I'm also not 100% sure of how well the bearings will hold up on extended runs.  So I'm trying to find a realy big ring gear/flexplate that I can mount inboard, on the inside hub of the flywheel between the engine and the flywheel.  I'll then fabricate a mount that holds a standard starter (whatever kind is needed) right in front of the crank access panel.

The trick is that this probably will need to be a custom-cut ring gear, offset mounted onto a thin plate.   There is limited space between what will be the plane of the gear face and the camshaft housing - getting the measurements right will be a trick.

Anyone know how big starter flexplates can get?  What are the biggest truck flexplates available?

Before anyone says "This is easy to solve by putting it on the outside of the flywheel", yes, I know.  I have space constraints due to the frame the engine is mounted in, so it has to be inboard.

JT