Lafree Lite broken motor mount

[PeterG]

The rear motor mount on my Giant Lafree Lite broke. I noticed that there was unusual movement in the pedals. When I took off the chain guard I could see that the mount, which emerges from the motor casing and is bolted to the bike frame, had broken. The two mounts at the front of the motor seemed fine. The bike is 4 and a half years old and was riding very nicely before this happened. I just had the original battery pack recelled and was looking forward to a few more years of riding it.

Any suggestions about how to repair or work around this issue would be greatly appreciated.

 

[flecc]

Sorry to hear of this misfortune Peter, the first time I've heard of it happening. I take it you mean the one at the extreme left of this photo, alongside the arrow shaft of number 1.

How are you with mechanical skills for undertaking a full stripdown and reassembly of the unit, including removing all components, electronic and mechanical?

If you let me know that you are completely confident about that I may be able to help.
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[PeterG]

Top Rear Mount Broken

Actually it is the top rear mount that is broken, the one to the left of the red wire in the photo. The tubular part of the mount was still bolted to the bike frame but the portion that extends up from the motor casing was broken clear through.

My mechanical and electrical skills are modest and I have given up attempting to do anything other than the most routine work on bikes. However, there are two local bike shops that are very good at working through unusual issues. One of the shops (Cycle 9) specializes in electric-assist bicycles. They rebuilt my original Lafree power pack with lithium-manganese cells (I showed them your web site as a guide). The other bike shop only does repairs (no sales of new bikes) and they share work space with a fellow who does small-scale metal fabrication and welding. It appears that the motor casing is cast aluminum so welding is probably not an option. In any case, I would pay one of these shops to do the repair and would not attempt it myself. Of course, that means that an extensive repair could quickly become too expensive to be worthwhile.

Thanks for your help flecc.

 

[flecc]

I suspected it might be the top attachment, hence my check.

Two ways round this then Peter. I can supply a new left hand casting for your unit free of charge, but it is a major job to completely strip the unit and remove everything from the broken half and some parts of the re-assembly are very fiddly.

I've therefore got some doubts about the bike shop doing this reliably, though I'd be happy to advise if they needed any help with any stage of the job.

That's one option if I post the new crankcase half to you.

The other option is for you to pack and courier the unit to me once you have it off the bike and I can then build on the new crankcase half for you and return the unit, no charge of course, so that could be much cheaper.

Let me know which way you'd like to tackle this. I'm away for the first two or three days this week and will be offline so won't be able to communicate from Monday to about Wednesday inclusive.
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[PeterG]

wonderful offer

Flecc, you are remarkably generous. I think that the best option would be for me to ship the motor to you. I can easily see how things might go wrong if I asked one of the local shops to do it. Please let me know where to ship the motor. Of course, I am happy to pay any expenses that you incur in doing this.

Thanks - Peter

 

[flecc]

A pleasure Peter, I've got a new Panasonic unit that I've gradually been cannibalising to get others going, the right hand crankcase and circuit board having recently gone for that purpose, so it will be down to loose internal parts now!

I'm sending you a PM with my name and address details, but it would be best not to despatch immediately since there won't be anyone here to receive the unit before Thursday/Friday. It won't take me long to rebuild it once received.
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