How to dismantle this motor

[drsolly]

I have a problem with my motor, and I'm pretty sure that it boils down to an intermittent connection on one of the Hall wires. The symptom is that occasionally, it runs very roughly, but when I jiggle/squeeze/wiggle the Hall wires at the point when they enter the motor, it goes back to normal.

So I want to take the motor apart, see where the loose connection is, and make it good. The problem is, I can't see how to take the motor apart. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[Alan Quay]

You could save yourself some agro and buy a sensorless controller, and run it like that.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Is the join between the spoke flanges, in which case you have to despoke the wheel to separate the halves.

When you say hall wires, do you mean phase wires?

 

[drsolly]

I think the problem is with one of the Hallwires, but now you come to mention it, it could be a phase wire. But either way, I think I need to split the motor, and if that means despoking, then ugh!

Yes, a sensorless controller might well be a good idea.

 

[drsolly]

It occurs to me that, as this bike is a folder that gets folded often, the break in the wires might be near the fold.

I do like the idea of a sensorless controller, and I have one in mind, but first I need to check if the loose connection is a Hall, or whether it's a phase wire.

I need to investigate more.

 

[shemozzle999]

As d8veh has said you will need to get the magnifying glass out and find where the join line between the hub body and the hub side plates occur.

From you photos there appears to be no radial bolts holding the parts together so I assume they screw together.

Usually a small grub screw is used on the outer circumference to lock the parts in place once they are screwed up tight to preventing them from loosening when being driven but from the heads on photos it is difficult to see if there is a step in the casting profile to allow for one.

If you do manage to open it I have both 3 pin and 9 pin replacement weatherproof plug/socketed cables available.

 

[drsolly]

I've ordered an Infineon sensorless controller from em3ev, I've been very happy with their stuff so far. When that arrives, I'll put it on the bike. If everything is OK, and I don't get the intermittent (but only very occasional) problem, then it was te Halls, and I've fixed it. If I still get the problem, then it's the phase wires, and I'll have to hope that the break is outside the motor, because despoking it, then respoking it and then getting the balance right, will be a several hour job (based on the one time I did something like this before), and that's without getting the motor apart, and fixing the problem.

No, I can't see a grub screw. There's a "fault line" all the way round the middle of the hub, and that's how (I guess) it comes apart.

The controller cost me $100 (£60), and if fitting that cures the problem, I'll be a happy bunny.

Meanwhile, I'm using bike.5, my Downtube (20 inch wheel), with a 250w, 24v brushed motor. So I'm not in a tremendous hurry to get bike.1 working.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

It would have been better to spend £8 on an ebike tester!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1PC-24V-36V-48V-60V-Car-Scooter-Brushless-Electro-E-bike-Motor-Controller-Tester-/181246430524?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item2a33210d3c

 

[drsolly]

I already have one of those, and it's been very useful.

The reason I can't use it for this, is that the fault is very intermittent. It happens maybe a couple of times per day, and wiggling the wires gets me working again. My concern is that this intermittent fault might develop into a fully-fledged fault and leave me powerless in the middle of a field somewhere.