A View from Broadway

Start me up!

A Speed engine starter that will spin either direction. All photos by Ken Burdick.

Yes folks, it’s true.

In my micro world of speed flying, a starter is a must.

The only exception and the reason I paid big bucks for a 24v starter was the Louie Mobile. The McGee .65 would make a snack out of a puny 12v starter. Ironically, I found it much easier to hand start the beast by bouncing it off compression. Still, there was need for a good starter and I built one.

All went well until I bought the Blondie Proto speed from Partner (Chris Sackett) this particular engine runs the other direction and is better for takeoffs, but it does run clockwise. I have a 12v starter that injured both me and Bruce Tunberg in Oregon last fall, and that had to go.

My winter project was to make my starter run in either direction by throwing a switch.

It’s really pretty simple using a double-pole double throw relay, which I found on Amazon. I could have used a dpdt switch, but things would get crowded.

The wires from the starter run to the poles of the relay; the throws (contacts) are wired from the batteries through a switch and a solid state fuse. The polarity to the contacts in the relay’s rest position run the starter in the usual ccw (counter clockwise) direction. The fun happens when the relay is energized and the poles now connect to the opposite polarity and the motor runs backwards for my balky Proto Speed.

I wired the thing with zip tie and whatever I had laying around, and like all prototypes, it was a rat’s nest of wires. Another trip to Amazon produced the silicon wire, tie wraps and proper spade lugs to clean things up. Here are the before and after pictures. The relay is cool because it has a pretty blue cover.

The prototype had a rat's nest of wiring.

Front view.

Wiring cleaned up.

— Kenny-b.

A View from Broadway

Start me up!

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