Starter Plate

The Tiger1's starter plate and the starting procedure prove to be very complicated. There is enough data to create a model, but some parts still remain a mystery.

The Starter plate is used for hand starting the engine with the engine's inertia starter or with an external starter engine. Normally, this plate is stored between the exhausts. The early versions were stored in an inclined position. Later, with the introduction of the exhaust covers, they were placed vertical. Note that the plate is not symmetrical and while it can be mounted two ways, you may encounter it with the holes in the left or in the right position.
When the engine needed to be hand started, the armoured cover plate just above the towing pintle was removed. Then the starter plate was placed in the hole with the long side (and extra hole) downwards. The crank bar was then screwed into the appropriate hole. Now the inertia starter could be cranked until it made a high pitching noise due to it very high rotation speed. The inertia starter was now released to the engine. It is not completely clear how the release mechanism worked. For sure there were several versions. which could use either a pin or a chain to activate.

The strange asymmetric shape is used to place the holes off-centre from the circular plate that is mounted on the back side. This way the holes can be aligned exactly with the engines axles. I have indications that the main plate is casted, not pressed into shape. On the photos below, we may find the following items:

  1. "Grips": These are used to attach an external starter engine. This drives the Tiger engine crankshaft directly, not via the inertia starter.
  2. B1 was clearly used on the early models, equipped with the HL210 engine. It is a common theory that the second hole was added with the introduction of the HL230 engine because of a changed location for the connection axle to the inertia starter. The centre hole was believed to be left for use with the early HL210 engine. However, On the Saumur photo you may see that the HL230 engine also has a connection on the main axle, aligned with the centre hole for the crank bar. It's use is not completely clear yet. Note that the "B2" hole does not show nice dimensions for it's position. It looks like it was very difficult to get both axles through the rear armour plate's hole.
  3. The early version plate had a positioning ring welded to the back. On the late version this ring was attached to a separate plate (Or may be it was one piece.), which was bolted to the main plate. The slits and bolts "C" are used to secure and position it.
  4. Rotating the somehow fixed nuts and bolts "D" will secure the starter plate because of the T-shape at the other end. These bolts lead through a thin tube, possibly with some kind of a spring inside to keep the bolt in position. This construction, which does not show on photos is not clear yet. When the plate is in storage position between the exhausts, it is fixed with this T-shape in two pipes. The position of the holes differ between the Saumur Tiger and the Sturmtiger. Also note the green circle on the photos, which indicates the measured distance between the bolts. On all three plates, these bolts seem to be placed with a lower centre point. So far, I found no logic reason for this.
  5. The Bovington plate shows a small hole below the large centre hole, which is used for releasing the inertia starter with some kind of a rod. On the later plates the position of this hole seemed to be relocated a few centimetres and reshaped to something like a "keyhole". "D.W. to Tiger1" has drawings showing something like a "T" end on the rod.
  6. The hole "F" also is not clear. At the moment I think it could have been used to pull on a chain to release the inertia starter.
  7. The items "G1" and "G2" are for fixing the key rod. These may be found on various places. I suggest studying photos of your model before finally choosing a place.

 

starterplate-div

Div (18KB)

 starterplate-front1

Front 1 (24KB)

 starterplate-front2

Front 2 (21KB)
The Bovington plate

Early, Bovington Tiger1
(377.7KB)

 The Saumur Tiger1 plate

Late, Saumur Tiger1
(378.6KB)

 The Munster Sturmtiger plate

Late, Munster Sturmtiger
(375.4KB)
panther.gif

Panther "Grips"
(86KB)

 hetzer.gif

Hetzer "Grips"
(60KB)

 kba

External Starter Page
 

David Byrden noted that the "Grips" dimension was supposed to be 320mm in stead of the 316mm in my drawings. A check on other vehicles revealed this to be correct while these were all 320mm. The "error" is caused by the grips on the plate not being at right angles on the measured plate. At the top they measure 320mm, bottom 316mm.
In future I hope to be able to compare dimensions of the Saumur - Munster plates with the Bovington one.