A tale of how a normally 30 minute operation can spin into 2 weeks of frustration.
Background
I jumped in to help out a guy over on FB.
Problem- While out on a cruise, car just stopped. Had to push home. Wife was not happy.
2005 e2. GE5 short motor.
I helped him go through the standard checks on the car.
No errors. Still lights up, gets clunk. Everything pointed to stuck brushes.
I was not sure what to do about the wife.
Minimum/basic tools at this summer house in FL.
I talked him into pulling off end of motor for a look.
Found one brush stuck in it’s holder, it’s opposing brush broken into bits/sitting in the bottom of the motor, and another brush with it’s wire broken off.
Thinking this thing has been only running off half a motor until brush wire gave up. (Once I mentioned this theory he said that the performance DID seem a little off lately).
Next up - Remove motor - super easy - Nope!
Armature stuck. Will not come off input shaft. Slide off the outer case to get a better look. Spray penetrant, let it soak for a day or 3, give it little wiggles every now and then. Progressed to hammer(bounce it off the rubber bumper). Theory was sound but no help. Also broke the magnet with this action.
Since the repair cost was escalating on this average motor I pointed him to Rodney to see what he had on hand for a replacement motor. Even better that he was in driving range (save on shipping and gets to meet the legend- Double bonus!!). He came home with a fresh rebuilt blue motor. Gloves can come off now.
No amount of wiggle, hammering, prying, soaking, or coupler heating was providing the slightest nudge of improvement. Damage to the armature was reflecting the frustration. A hacksaw was donned to cut off the copper windings for more room to work. (children should look away)
With a little bit more access we drilled a little hole in the middle of the coupler to shoot in some more lube. He landed on the rubber coupler perfectly. Soak/wiggle/heat - Still no progress. I had the wild idea to drill/tap/insert a grease fitting and apply grease gun/pressure to pop it off. Got to rock hard on the grease gun handle with no effect. Odd moment when heating coupler with the torch again it got so hot that the little ball in the zerk fitting shot out with a pop! (grease expanded??).
Hacksaw on the job again and several blades later it came off the hard way. Unfortunately, he missed the rubber bumper and went through the motor shaft too. Guy was an animal!
He drilled 3) 1/4 in holes spaced 120° radially around the coupler so he had something to grab with his puller. He did NOT go deep enough to hit the shaft with these holes/pins. With coupler installed and as tight as he could go the coupler still would not budge. Pins started to show protest tho. I had him take a little shave with hacksaw just to get the motor shaft bit out of the picture. This did not help.
Next- I had him go out and get a set of snap ring pliers. It turns out there is just enough room to get in there and squeeze that retaining ring out of the input shaft groove and pull the shaft out of the transmission.
The gap between the coupler and bearing was still not big enough for the claws on his puller so he took the shaft to a local cart shop and they had a press in the back that bullied it off the rest of the way. Success!!!
I think he had the shaft back in, motor on, wired back up, hood on and all back together in an hour.
Cart now doing steady 32/33 on the flats. Better than before! (Rodney set him up with a 1/2 pulse disc magnet)
I have not heard on wife status.
