Starter having pinion-rotation-restricting mechanism for use in automotive vehicle

摘要

A starter for cranking an internal combustion engine is composed of an electric motor, an output shaft driven by the electric motor, a pinion gear unit helical-spline-coupled to the output shaft, and a magnetic switch for supplying electric power to the electric motor in an ON-and-OFF fashion and for engaging or disengaging the pinion gear unit with a ring gear of the engine. The pinion gear unit is made by fixedly connecting a pinion gear, a rotation-restricting ring and a bearing member together. These components are separately formed from one another and then assembled to a unitary body of the pinion gear unit. Therefore, they can be forged with simple dies, or may be manufactured by other methods such as machining.