Pneumatic Starter

[BruceM]

   http://listerengine.com/coppermine/displayimage.php?pos=-57

Here's a photo of my prototype pneumatic starter in the Coppermine photo gallery.  I'm new to Listers, just getting my off grid homesite generator shed finished and about ready to move in the 6/1 Listeroid after the standard new engine tear down and rebuild. The Lister will provide power for the homesite and  compressed air for my shop. My Lister is a 2000 vintage Metro that was never uncrated.  It runs great (not a hopper) and the sound is a delight.

George B's parts, utterpower.com web site and CD have been invaluable. Every single item he covered needed attention on my Metro.  And I've found some very helpful stuff here on exhaust and cooling systems, too.  Many thanks for sharing your experience!

Bruce McCreary
Snowflake, AZ

[sid]

the air started is a beautiful example of keeping it simple//it makes you wonder why didn,t I think of that.simple but effective/very few parts/ if you do a follow up on it and go in more detail/ especilly the source of air motor and air pressure involve// sid

[hotater]

Dittos to sid---  How much air does it take and where do you store it?  NEAT set-up.  Thanks for sharing.

[BruceM]

Either the Gast 2AM or 4AM will do the job.  You can get about 2.5 starts on a 10 gallon, 100 PSI tank full of air.  My Lister will be pumping air to a big 500 gallon tank for my shop, but I'll keep some air in a smaller 30 gallon tank on a check valve in the engine shed for insurance.  I have MS and cranking is tough if she doesn't go right off.  It's also great for bleeding the fuel system.

The castor wheel is secured to the drive shaft by (2) homemade 1"x 1/4" threaded rod set screws.   In the photo you can see the hole. The wheel has a hard rubber core that was drilled and tapped. A small flat is ground on the shaft for each. The wheel was trued after mounting by running the air motor and holding sand paper against it. It's smooth as silk in use now.  Because starting torque with an air motor is low, there's almost no slipping, and it takes about 12 seconds to get to starting speed. 

I fooled around with pulley's and belts on the air motors before scrounging the 3" castor wheel from my junk box.  The Gast AM was a used ebay bargain I had on hand.

The 4AM is starved for air in my current setup as I'm using a long 3/8 hose with too many auto type connectors and a foot valve.  I think it will be able to maintain high cranking speed with compression once I put it on 1/2" hose and replace it's old sintered brass exhaust muffler with a larger felt one.

I built this because I got tired of cranking to bleed air out of the fuel system while fixing my many Metro fuel system leaks.  I finally replaced the fuel filter with the Mico one from George B.  That one is well built and is tight.  Just made a new IP banjo bolt as I found mine had a hairline crack in it.  Now with George's new brass banjo fitting on the IP I should at last be fuel and air leak free!

Best Wishes,
Bruce

[Reno Speedster]

This is a brilliant idea!  I was planning on mounting my air compressor in the engine shed anyway so this would be simple.  I got to thinking that the addition of a pneumatic ram to the foot pedal in place of the spring would make the whole thing work with the flip of a valve.  If you got creative it would even be possible to add a pneumatic exaust valve stop as well:  switch a valve and the exaust is held open, the starter motor comes in contact with the flywheel and turns it over, when its to speed switch the valve off and the exhaust valve closes, motor drops away and stops, engine starts. And all the parts are readily available off the shelf at any pneumatic control supply house. 

Morgan

[BruceM]

Hi Morgan,
Thanks, glad you like my air starter.  It is about as simple as it gets.

I had similar thoughts for autostart (air ram to press wheel/air motor against flywheel, with spring return). 

Another thought:  When the engine starts, the air motor speeds up as it is now driven by the flywheel instead of vice versa.  This might be detectable via a pressure switch/sensor, though an IR LED/phototransistor through the flywheel spokes could also be used to sence RPMs to shut down the starter air.

Air rams and solenoid valve are not "out of sight" price wise, either.  Grainger has a nice selection.

Auto start is something I probably won't do this year, though I do want remote shutdown to same a trip to the genshed on shut down. 

Bruce

[Stan]

Look here for the Cadillac of flywheel engine starters.  (and this is modern equipment!!!)

http://www.arrowengine.com/media/990starter.pdf

[BruceM]

With an old, choked up sintered brass exhaust muffler removed from the Gast 4AM motor, there is now more than enough power to crank at a good speed with compression.  It seems overpowered at this point, the 2AM may be sufficient with a better muffler and use less air.

I'll now fit it with a 24" long x 2" ABS drain pipe muffler. I've used these for about 10 years on my other shop ai motors.  I glue a PVC cap on one end, drill and tap one end for a 1/2" hose barb. The interior gets some medium steel wool and drill about 100 1/16" holes in the other cap, which is held on with 2 screws.  An old sock goes over the drilled end to catch lubicating oil from the exhaust air.  These do a good job as silencers, but don't rob power.

Bruce