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I had a starter relay stick on a race engine once. The first indication was when the engine died. There was no alternator on the car so the running starter drained the battery after just a few minutes, shutting down the ignition as well. This may have been accelerated by the engine 'sucking' additional current from the system by over speeding the starter.
After some head scratching and swapping in a fresh battery, a second problem was discovered. The bendix gear no longer had any teeth. The starter just free wheeled when initiated.
If the relay is open during such an event, electrically I would be concerned with where the generated energy gets dissipated (what is the generated voltage and where can it arc to?). If it is closed, I would be concerned with damage to the charging circuit, as the starter will almost certainly draw far more current than the circuit is rated for. Even if the charging system survives, unless it is able to produce equal or greater current that the starter draws, the battery voltage will drop below the requirements of the auxiliary systems in time. Obviously, this could be a much bigger concern than damaging the bendix.
Rob
In a message dated 12/18/08 16:45:19 Eastern Standard Time, mjrav@comcast.net writes:
Unless it's a stuck relay that is causing the starter motor to stay engaged.
Maybe someone else knows what would happen next. Nothing good I expect.
Mark Ravinski
360 1453 hrs
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 7:42 AM
Subject: [LML] runaway starter
so if your starter adapter does lock up and the engine turns the starter, does that cause an electrical hazard? In theory your starter relay opened so the starter can't drive current anywhere, right?
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