series wound starter motors

[ptribbey]

I have rewired a Japenese auto starter motor for seperate field/armature sourcing. It allows me to drive it with an h bridge to reverse the rotation. However, it is hard to couple to the project and draws lots of current.
My question to the group is: Does anyone have a specific make or model number of the "perfect" starter to hack? I think it could be from a motorcycle, car, snowmobile etc. It should be easy to rewire, not draw too many amps, and easy to physically couple to the project. Most will probably have more than enough torque for my application. There is an example on the 'net using an old Ford starter. That is exactly NOT what I had in mind.
I will be driving a rather large x/y setup.
Anyone with EXPERIENCE doing this? Ideas? Maybe a whole different direction to try? Thanks for any input
Paul

[L. Daniel Rosa]

Paul, I don't want to drown your enthusiasm but I'm not sure a starter motor would be the best bet. Their speed depends on power and load, so positioning will be imprecice. They are also a sacrifice of efficiency for small size and are designed with intermittant duty in mind. To rewire one of these for lower current will probably take care of the thermal issues, but it'll be a lot of work.<p>Before you commit yourelf to using a starter (and you _WILL_ be able to make it work), consider using an alternator for a moment. Without the rectifier and regulator it's just a three phase motor with the field (rotor) and pole (stator) windings independant so that you could use it as a stepper. The wiring is already a bit more reasonable. Granted, this will require more I/O for the motor control. You can find some relevant articles at http://www.tinaja.com .

[toejam]

I tried making one of those motors a few yaers ago. I took an old dodge alternator and removed the rectifier which gave me three phases.I than hooked a 555 as a pulse generator and fed that to a 4017 that reset on the third pulse.I used that to switch three irfz44 mosfets and fed 12 volts to the field winding. Although i was using a 1 amp power supply, the thing actually ran.You will have to use the alternator with the case positive.

[russlk]

have you considered using a auto seat adjusting motor? It is smaller than a starter, high torque, and doesn't turn high speed.

[dacflyer]

a starter motor is going to draw a ton of amps no matter what you do to it...<p>you could try a old fashion auto generator,,not alternator but a generator,,,found on real old cars,and a few rare lawn mowers...the lawnmowers used the generator to start the motor then once it was started it turned into a generator to recharge the battery....
maybe you can use this to power your project then use the generator as a dynamic brake to recharge batteries?,,,,,,just an idea