# Golf cart Starter / Generator



## f350ca (Apr 3, 2014)

I acquired a Hitachi starter / generator off a Yamaha golf cart. I want to repurpose it to crank a twin cylinder Wisconsin that I plan on using on a firewood processor. Its a Model GSB107-02 .I need to know the recommended operating speed for these so I can design the belt drive. Want to give the starter as much advantage as I can without over speeding it when the engine is operating. Can find all sorts of them for sale when i do a search but nothing for specs, Hitachi's site looks hopeless. Anyone have any experience with these.
Thanks
Greg


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## David S (Apr 4, 2014)

Greg you can try and contact these guys.  I know the owner Doug Overbury and he may be able to give you some information.

http://www.autoelectrickingston.com/

David


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## amuller (Apr 4, 2014)

f350ca said:


> I acquired a Hitachi starter / generator off a Yamaha golf cart. I want to repurpose it to crank a twin cylinder Wisconsin that I plan on using on a firewood processor. Its a Model GSB107-02 .I need to know the recommended operating speed for these so I can design the belt drive. Want to give the starter as much advantage as I can without over speeding it when the engine is operating. Can find all sorts of them for sale when i do a search but nothing for specs, Hitachi's site looks hopeless. Anyone have any experience with these.
> Thanks
> Greg


What model Wisconsin engine are you planning to start this way?  If it is a TJD or other parallel twin, I think you will have difficulty making it work--likely it will not have enough torque at a reasonable drive ratio, and those engines don't have any sort of compression release.  I once had a Wisconsin AENL with a starter/generator and it was marginal.  Anyway--good luck with the project.


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## Ed T (Apr 4, 2014)

I have an old Wisconsin 10 hp single (TR10D) which has a similar starter on it. The pulley on the flywheel is about 9.5" in diameter and the motor pulley is about as small as it can be I would GUESS the ratio is about 6-1. I have had the tractor for about 25 years, the starter/ generator has been a continual source of problems. It's a bad generator and a worse starter. It's a Delco and the Hitachi one may be better, but, as suggested above, I would really question if it's got enough torque to swing a twin w/o compression release. I would search pretty hard to see if there's another way to do what you need to do before blowing a lot of time and effort on a starter generator. It may be a away to do the job, but based on my experience, it will be marginal and there are other ways.


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## f350ca (Apr 4, 2014)

Will have to test it to see but Im thinking this unit might spin the Wisconsin, in service they start the cart moving as the engine starts and do it over and over all day long. The twin shouldn't be that much harder to crank than a single, about the same size piston with a full revolution between compression. 
I can get a 14 inch pulley on the crank, at the governed 2800 rpm engine speed would put the generator at 10,000. If yours has a 6:1 ratio it would be much faster.
Im planning on belt driving the saw bar, figure it would be much more efficient than using hydraulics, but need to power an electric clutch to engage the drive, hence need a charging system to keep up with that draw.
Thanks for the input guys.


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## OlCatBob (Apr 4, 2014)

F350ca,

please do post a pic of your project, I have a similar engine, with no starter, and I for one would like to see what you come up with.

Bob


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## f350ca (Apr 4, 2014)

Will post a picture once I get the mounts built. May be a while, just started a set of kitchen cabinets but will probably steal some time for this.
Did a rebuild on it last spring, bored .030 over, new valve guides and reground the valve seats, the valves were good as were all the bearings.






Boring the cylinders on the lathe, the quill on my mill won't stroke far enough and cranking the knee up and down didn't appeal to me.
Couldn't measure the taper after I was finished.




Greg


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## amuller (Apr 5, 2014)

Judging from the pics that engine was crank start.  So I presume there is no ring gear on the flywheel?  Most of these built in "recent" times have a flywheel alternator and a Bendix drive starter.  But I have seen them with a solenoid-shift starter.  So you would need to scrounge up various bits from a junker.

As I recall, 6 to 1 is a typical drive ratio for the Delco starter-generators.   Strikes me that them make sense on a golf cart because quietness is a big issue in golf and the clashing of starter pinion/ring gear would be avoided.

The electrical out put is fairly limited--maybe around ten amps.  These things whiz around and it's not too hard to get one hot enough and fast enough to throw the solder out of the commutator connections.

Nice boring setup.  How hard was it to get the bores centered?

Good luck.  I hope you will share the results of your starter-generator setup.

Now that I'm thinking about this--International used a starter/generator on the low-boy version of the Cub, which has a small 4-cylinder engine of about 10-15 hp.  The earlier offset, high-clearance version uses a conventional starter and generator.  As far as I know the starter/generator works OK in this application.


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## f350ca (Apr 5, 2014)

It came off a NewHolland bailer, actually had a hand wheel on the drive end that you spun to start it. Where it was positioned you couldn't reach the crank.
Will try a 3 1/2 to 1 ratio, 14 inch pulley is all I can get on the shaft, the starter already has a 4 inch pulley with a fan.
The boring job worked out quite well, I have a 3 jaw bearinged chuck for the tailstock, I could hold it in place with it while I clamped it down, that got me real close, then just tap it around to find the centre of the holes.
Photo's will follow.

Greg


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## f350ca (Apr 8, 2014)

Dropped into the golf course maintenance shop where I got the unit. Apparently they're rated for 8,000rpm continuous and 12,000 burst for 3 minutes. Good thing I dropped in the 14 inch pulley might have done it in, will go with a 12 inch and spin it at 8,400, close enough to specs.
Greg


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## f350ca (Apr 12, 2014)

Made up a mount for the start/generator and installed the 12 inch pulley. 




Bad news is the unit is no good. Im suspecting a short in the armature, (I'm no expert on starters). It will spin over on its own but no power, and a dead spot it won't start from. One of the segments on the comutater was burnt, turned it on the lathe, regroved it and the section burnt again.
Now we're on the hunt for another one to see if it has the power.


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## f350ca (Apr 14, 2014)

Took 4 old units from the golf course to make a working unit, but it spins the engine over easily. Way faster than I'd ever crank it by hand. Will have to see if the charge circuit is working.




Greg


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## Panther Man (Jan 26, 2016)

Hi, Greg.  Interested to read your experiences of hooking up a dynostart to a stationary engine.  I'm about to embark on a similar exercise, though in my case fitting the same unit to a 1960 British 650cc single-cylinder motorcycle.  Like you, I've had difficulty in finding out the 'working' RPM which you found was 8,000.  I also fretted about the likely cranking speed, but of course that will be what it will be, given a) the gearing to achieve 8000 rpm charging and b) the torque the unit provides.  I'd like to know how the setup's worked in practice and what you estimate the cranking speed to be.  I've got the luxury of a half-decompressor device (for easy starting normally), plus a full decompressor lever (for engine kill normally), which either/together linked with a large flywheel mass should enable so momentum to be built up.  I'd be grateful to hear how it's all panned out in (snowy?) Ontario.


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## f350ca (Jan 26, 2016)

Hate to admit it but the engine has been sitting for I guess two years with no progress. I plan on using it in a fire wood processor, that Im working on when I get the time. Will hopefully have made some progress by the end of winter, Good luck.

Greg


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## Panther Man (Jan 26, 2016)

f350ca said:


> Hate to admit it but the engine has been sitting for I guess two years with no progress. I plan on using it in a fire wood processor, that Im working on when I get the time. Will hopefully have made some progress by the end of winter, Good luck.
> 
> Greg


And the same to you!  Probably both get the things going at the same time...  I'll let you know how I get on if I finish first.


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## Keith Foor (Jan 28, 2016)

Just a thought, but if you are going to be running a belt drive to the chain bar anyhow, why not put a GM style alternator on it and fine a proper starter for the motor?  Given that it's a hand start model and runs from a magneto, very little RPM is required to bring the motor to life as opposed to a non-magneto small engine that requires a bit more speed to turn over.  The other thing that would enable you to do is run some LED type flood lights attached directly to the processor on masts for work lights.

I think the issue you might run into with such a small starter on that engine is unless you have some sort of belt tension release ( you mentioned an electric clutch which wold mean you would be fighting the belts as well as  the motor when starting it) the belt load may be a bit too much for the starter motor to overcome.


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## f350ca (Jan 28, 2016)

The older Wisconsin's like this didn't have a ring gear or that would be my preferred method Keith. Thought about mounting a flex plate on the output shaft but then keeping the starter aligned would probably be a pain. The clutches draw 3.5 amp but only when the saw is engaged so I think it will keep up.  as for lights, the days are long enough.

Greg


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## utterstan (Jun 30, 2016)

that looks like a harley starter shovelhead i think


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