1919 Starter/Generator

[Steve Braverman]

How is the starter/generator driven on a 1919 Buick six? Is it by a chain? Does it start the engine through the chain, or does it engage through a ring gear?

[Fred Rawling]

The starter generator turns a ring gear to start the engine.

[Dandy Dave]

These early Delco units are driven from a gear that is driven from the crank shaft gear that is on the forward part (Timing cover.) of the engine. There is a clutch inside of the unit that will allow the armature to spin faster on the start cycle than on the generating cycle. When the ignition switch is pulled to start the car you will hear a clicking. That is the clutch which disengages the armature from the distributor. You in essence are energizing the charging circut, which will allow the armature to spin slowly. When you depress the starter foot pedel, You are engaging the starter pinion gear into the flywheel and also dropping the rear brush of the unit to energize the starter half of the armature, therefore making it spin faster to crank the engine. Basically think of it as the generator works from the front, and the starter works from the rear. These units have a single armature, double wound with two commutaters, one on each end. When the engine starts, the clutch will grab and spin the armature to charge the battery. Dandy Dave!

[nickelroadster]

Good description of the operation of the delco starter generator. On mine, which is an earlier model on an Olds, The front end goes to the water pump, then to the timing cover and timing gears and drives the generator and distributor portion of the unit. This part must be timed. Some of the starter generator unit did not have the distributor included with the unit. The clicking sound is an overrunning clutch which allows the starter generator to turn with out turning the distributor. this helps the gears to mesh easily when starting.

[Dandy Dave]

The shaft that drives the distributor/generator on the Buicks also runs though the water pump. Timing it is quite simple, as all you need to do is loosen a screw on top of the distributor shaft, and rotate it to your desired position.

If you Olds is a 1914 or 1915, The unit is very similar to the model that is in my 15 Buick. Dandy Dave!