What motor will work with my Giant Twist Express?

[DreadPirateRoberts]

I have a Giant Twist Express with a dead front hub motor. It's a mechanical fault and Giant will only sell me a whole new wheel. I'm just wondering if it's possible to wire up any hub motor to the existing wiring and expect the Giant controller/battery to be able to drive it? The motor has 9 wires (3xpower, 6xsensor).

The internal setup is similar to this motor and in my case it is the nylon gears which have failed.

I'll quite happily lace up a new motor the the wheel and wire it if I knew it would work with the existing controller.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You can buy replacement gears for it. Show us a photo of what you've got. Did you open it to see the damaged gears, or is that just speculation from symptoms?

 

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Any idea where to buy gears? I've had it open, stripped it down, identified the worn gears (3 planet gears and the outer ring) but haven't been able to find any. I even went so far as doing up a drawing and looking for a quote to make up a set (EUR500!). Pdf uploaded below. I can strip it down again for pics after the weekend.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You can get them from BMSBattery.com, Greenbike kit.com, various sellers on Aliexpress and this German shop.
http://elfkw.at/

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I forgot to mention that any sensored hub motor should work.

I'd really appreciate an actual picture of yours for reference. Does it have the same standard free-wheel clutch with three 36T or 28T gears?

 

[shemozzle999]

I have a Giant Twist Express with a dead front hub motor. It's a mechanical fault and Giant will only sell me a whole new wheel. I'm just wondering if it's possible to wire up any hub motor to the existing wiring and expect the Giant controller/battery to be able to drive it? The motor has 9 wires (3xpower, 6xsensor).

The internal setup is similar to this motor and in my case it is the nylon gears which have failed.

I'll quite happily lace up a new motor the the wheel and wire it if I knew it would work with the existing controller.

The image above is a 8fun motor off Google.

I think your replacement motor gears are these, but you will have to check your motor:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Electric-bicycle-giant-630a-432-432a-312-232a-233-se-dx-sanyo-motor-gear/826682143.html

 

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Shemozzle, you're a star! I've done endless searches around the theme of 'giant ebike hub motor planetary gears' and come up with nothing. Even a search on 'giant ebike sanyo motor gear' gave me nothing. Your link looks like just the thing and at EUR14, much cheaper than a whole new wheel from Giant. I'll order these and get that sorted.

I noticed, when stripping the hub, that the grease had mostly flung off the gearbox and onto the shell of the hub. Given that there are no drain holes in the hub, I was thinking it might be a reasonable option to part-fill the hub with oil so that motor and hub would end up in a permanent oil-bath which would avoid the loss of grease from the gears. Any thoughts? I don't think oils will short electrics like water would.

D8veh, that's good to know about any motor. That was going to be my next port of call if I couldn't get parts for this one.

I'll put up pics when I get to strip the motor...

 

[Deleted member 4366]

There's a thread on ES about filling a motor with oil for improved cooling. You have to seal it and only 1/3 fill to stop it from leaking out:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=37972&hilit=snake+oil
IMHO it's not worth it for just lubrication. They run for years with a minimal amount of grease.

 

[shemozzle999]

I'll put up pics when I get to strip the motor...

Photos of this motor would be good as they seem in short supply on the internet.

 

[flecc]

Photos of this motor would be good as they seem in short supply on the internet.

There are several versions which adds complication. Originally the American Berkestrand Motorised Wheel with regen (no freewheel), Sanyo used it in their home market with a freewheel. That was also the version Giant used on the Suede and Argue models, but on the following Twist 1 and 2 models they were back to having regen with no freewheel. Finally on the recent Twist Express series models Giant have regained the freewheel with no regen of course, and the motor is used with a higher output.

It may not even be the same motor any more on the later models, since Sanyo were taken over by Panasonic two years ago and they have their own series of front hub motors now, with and without regen, or regen with light braking and now also a version with full electronic brake.

 

[shemozzle999]

I wonder how he got on?

 

[flecc]

Since he responded promptly before to try to solve the problem and also ordered the gears, I'd guess he's probably fixed up ok with your solution shemozzle999.

 

[shemozzle999]

Hopefully no news is good news.

 

[DreadPirateRoberts]

No news is entirely my fault but is good news nontheless. The bike is back in action. Write up at: http://cod.homelinux.org/C/bike/Giant_Twist_Express_Motor_Repair/Giant_Twist_Express_Motor_Repair.xhtml .

I had dismantled the motor and found the planetary gears to be badly worn:

Following shemozzle999's link, I came across a 'version 2' set of gears with brass bushings which took about a month to arrive for all of €13. ( http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Electric-bicycle-giant-630a-432-432a-312-232a-233-se-dx-For-sanyo-motor-gear-Version/1469178828.html )

The motor was pretty easy to work on, just allen keys and spanners and a whole lot of grease.

Inner workings:

Exploded view (view image for full size):

Repaired motor mounted for test:

Once I had the motor repaired, I replaced 1 set of brake blocks, 1 gear cable and the fork connector cover. Got 50km commuting range over a couple of days on a single charge (not bad for 4 or 5 years old). All told, I spent about €70 on this refurbishment (about €25 on the motor repair). Kinda beats €300 for a new wheel from Giant!

Thank you all for your prompt replies and help...

 

[shemozzle999]

Hi DPR, great news.

Thank you for the excellent photos, methodical write up and link to your site, it was well worth the wait

I am sure other Giant owners will benefit from your exchange of knowledge and help keep these older versions on the road.

I hope you enjoy many more future rides.

 

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Hi all,

Just updating the below to account for a change of domain. I've sold the bike since so I cannot report on the longevity of the repair but I'd be confident, particularly in view of the brass bushings in the new gears...

No news is entirely my fault but is good news nontheless. The bike is back in action. Write up at: http://cod.homelinuxserver.org/C/bike/Giant_Twist_Express_Motor_Repair/Giant_Twist_Express_Motor_Repair.xhtml .

I had dismantled the motor and found the planetary gears to be badly worn:

Following shemozzle999's link, I came across a 'version 2' set of gears with brass bushings which took about a month to arrive for all of €13. ( http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Electric-bicycle-giant-630a-432-432a-312-232a-233-se-dx-For-sanyo-motor-gear-Version/1469178828.html )

The motor was pretty easy to work on, just allen keys and spanners and a whole lot of grease.

Inner workings:

Exploded view (view image for full size):

Repaired motor mounted for test:

Once I had the motor repaired, I replaced 1 set of brake blocks, 1 gear cable and the fork connector cover. Got 50km commuting range over a couple of days on a single charge (not bad for 4 or 5 years old). All told, I spent about €70 on this refurbishment (about €25 on the motor repair). Kinda beats €300 for a new wheel from Giant!

Thank you all for your prompt replies and help...

 

[jayx]

Hi All,

I have the same problem (worn gears), but in my motor they are a bit different:


The motor is 36V with a freewheel. It's not just a different colour, but also the number of teeths. Anyone know if these are available anywhere? By the way, they are not selling these black ones on Aliexpress any more