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The Bendix is part of the electric starter motor (or starter). Your starter in your car is basically a little electric motor that begins to turn the flywheel on an internal combustion engine. When you turn your cars ignition "on" (turn the cars' key), you send current from your battery to your cars solenoid. The solenoid takes the current and sends/converts it to a little -but very strong electromechanical motor. This current flows from the solenoid to the starer and travels into the Bendix, which is the gear piece on actual electric motor. It is made of strong forged steel about the size of a wedding ring, but about an inch thick. This Bendix wheel has deep "teeth" on it that form a gear. When the Bendix is activate, it travels from the housing of the electrical motor to the cars flywheel (the flywheel turns the internal combustion engine). The Bendix gear meshes with the flywheel like the gears on a giant clock. The strong little Bendix turns the large flywheel, and starts the engine in motion. Once the engine is in motion, all that is needed is air, gas/fuel and spark. If you ever saw an OLD car from the 1920's, you'll see a person CRANKING the engine from the front of the car while the driver operates the ignition. The person turning the engine is essentially the Bendix. This is also why you don't necessarily need a started for a manual shift car. If you push a car, you can pop the clutch and essentially put the flywheel in motion without ever having a starter- you just have to be really strong or park facing down hill. I hope that's not too much information. Bendix is a brand name, the part is called the starter drive.

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13y ago

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