I am hoping to pull the motor this weekend. Where would I be shipping the motor to? (Curious on shipping cost to send it to you.) Also, what is the difference between the Blue and Black are these D&D brand motors that you sell? And do they require reprogramming?
Blue motor is D&D black is AMD usually works as is.
Diehl Engineering
2400 Baywater Road
Tavares Florida
32778
We had time to take the motor out today and the speed sensor magnet was broken. I was surprised it wasn’t in too bad of shape otherwise and I definitely expected it to be dirtier then it is. Brushes are all still good. Just my grease idea looks bad. I’m going to clean off the grease and replace the sensor tomorrow to see if that is all it was. However, I’m not totally sure since the armature part sounds like there are some little pieces loose in it when you turn it from end to end.
the armature part sounds like there are some little pieces loose in it when you turn it from end to end.
Stand the motor up on end on the workbench and see if anything comes out.
If you have compressed air, take the motor outside and give it a good blast/cleaning.
I’ll take "what is grease? "For 200, Tribeck. And, BTW, Tribeck, your mother is a *****.
Winner, winner…chicken dinner!
Well, despite the motors armature/commutator sounding like a rain stick. Cleaning off the grease and replacing the broken speed sensor did the trick for curing the power losses. If I get any more power failures I will take the next steps in replacing it completely but so far it seems good for now.
Thank you JarJarJava for recommending the CRC cleaner, that made it a breeze and got it looking nice and shiny.
despite the motors armature/commutator sounding like a rain stick
While it was out on the workbench, did you check to see if all the brushes were sliding freely within their brush holders?
If is possible some of the oils soaked into the brush carbon and is popping/arcing in protest.
Yes, it as taken apart and checked. The brushes were clean and actually in good shape. The CRC got them even cleaner. It is the main cylinder (armature or commutator part) that goes into the brushes that sounds like a rain stick and you hear it when it turns. It is not the bearing at the end which was still in good shape too. It doesn’t seem to be a problem though.
I am pretty certain the main motor failing problem because of the broken speed sensor and it needing a cleaning. It might have had some build up before I put the grease on it and the grease made it way worse but in the same way it had been failing before. There had been no codes to help diagnose which was confusing me. Especially since 2 times out of many all the power went out (even the radio) which still doesn’t make sense to me. There could be another issue that has not surfaced but the power loss when driving with no codes and only the gas pedal stopped working was definitely fixed.
Does that “rainstick” effect vary in intensity with how hard you press the pedal down?
Does the noise change when you press the brake pedal?
The rainstick sound is the armature in the motor. When I took it out and apart to clean it. It is the actual center of motor that sounds like a rainstick. Unfortunately, it is starting to die again. I think the motor needs to be replaced, the cleaning got it running but only a week later now it is stalling and losing power again.
So the motor replacement helps a lot but there is still sometimes a hiccup of power when accelerating with petal to the floor. It doesn’t completely die anymore and the new motor does not sound like a rainstick. So I believe the motor was near end of life but there is still some sort of power overload or something triggering a hiccup in power to the motor. Are there an overload sensors or speed sensors or a regulator that you know of that I can check? Or is that all in the PSMD board? Also, the battery indicator still flashes constantly and the turtle symbol is now on always even though it is not running in turtle mode. Any ideas would be helpful.
You still have power issues? Is your screen still going dark when this happens? Are there any Wrench codes in place of the speed display when a yellow wrench appears?
I made some suggestions towards this issue back up around post 14 but you may have missed them.
<<< snip >>>
If everything goes black on screen then you have a major connection issue. This is also being shown to you as the occasional turtle.
This could be a bad/dirty connection on the battery, a bad cable crimp, or it could even be the Main Disconnect Switch.
If you take the car for a run, Stop and do a quick tap/touch on the connections and feel for heat.
Thank you, I will test for heat spots. There is no wrench codes or anything. Now that the new motor is in, I don’t have a full power loss and I seem to have a better battery life. I think the older motor was definitely pulling a lot more power. But since I still have loss of power when trying pulling out into traffic I hope to find the true culprit, I did miss checking for bad connections. Thank you for bring that back to my attention. I will need to take the dash off to test some parts so I will follow up in a bit once I get all the connections checked. I have a touchless thermometer that I think I’ll use for this. I do enjoy finding uses for tools that are sitting around. Would the main disconnect be hot if faulty?
AssyRequired you were absolutely correct. Apparently, the main positive and negative terminals that attach to the 1st and last batteries were loose. However, the interesting thing is that it is due to them overheating the batteries and melting the terminal area. The melted battery terminals around the bolts making the lugs loose. The bolt in the last battery terminal is actually loose in the battery itself. I am unable to get the nut on/off of it as it turns in the battery. This is my main issue now. I believe the new charger is over heating it when it charges. This could be due to the imbalance of batteries but gives me more to test as I don’t want to invest in all new batteries just to have them fried again. I tightened up the 1st terminal which also melted the new battery thermostat sensor that was on it (thankfully still seems to be still working as the resistance read 12k.) and this has stopped the lulls even though the other lug is loose too. Just don’t know the best way to get that bolt off with it turning loosely in the battery.
melted battery terminals around the bolts making the lugs loose.
A dirty/corroded cable lug/terminal can start off tight, but still not making a good connection.
-or-
both of these may have been loose.
Either way, tends to go the same path.
At first test, it may be fine for minor amp pulls like accessories. Most people do a quick battery swap, turn the key and if the car moves 10 feet back and forth they slap the seat back on and call it good to go.
When you start pulling the high amps these cars consume, that dirty connection starts generating heat. it cascades from there. This heat can get hot enough to soften lead (making the connection loose, compounding the issue). If ignored, it will liquify lead. 327.5 °C (621.5 °F). The goal is to catch it before it gets that hot.
The bolt in the last battery terminal is actually loose in the battery itself.
Yeah… that’s the tough part. You might need to cut that stud off and figure out another way to connect a cable to this battery. Does it happen to have an alternate post/lug?
The batteries have what looks like an aluminum terminal connection at the base of the bolt where it transitions to the plastic. It is not the bolt that melted but this transitional metal that is at the base area of the bolt.
Unfortunately, no alternative post and the last battery is under the back compartment so cutting it is going to be very tricky. I’m looking into ways to add some kind of washer or conductive spacer so that it will maintain a better connection before buying a full new set of batteries. This last one is loose but not as loose as the 1st one was. I’m hoping to extent the battery life a little more since they are still newish batteries. Once I cut the bolt it will be a goner. The older motor was definitely pulling more power as well and adding to the power that was being pulled. Replacing that made an improvement in the performance too. It was a perfect storm with weather of over 100 degrees for many days, not exactly equally balanced batteries, dying motor and the terminals loosing up. Sounds like a pretty typical day in my world… lol! Makes for some good stories.