Looking for tips to free motor from spline shaft

You wont hurt the gears. I stock seals and kits. A new armature is about
$350 I service all versions of GEM motors. Look for Touched By Rodney

I use a pipe on the end of the shaft method. I 7 for 1 using this method.

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I haven’t looked lately. You can by induction heating DIY kits on ebay. Possibly tunable to fewer turns or smaller wire.
Wire doesn’t get hot or matter if it touches something. Use insulated coil wire.
Only thing that heats is ferrous metal inside coil.
Never heard of the wrench. Might be something I need.

BUT, why look further than Rodney for parts or advice? Dana/Spicer and Ge motors are his things.

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@Sniff38 @Derrick
I’ve used the venom brand inductive bolt heaters before. All that stuff you see in the video, it’s all true. Puts my oxy-acetylene rigs to shame, even my mecco mini. But it’s a unitasker. I can’t personally justify the $800 price tag for that.

Ymmv

For this, I’d just listen to @Old_Houseboater . Rodney has never steered me wrong.

Can anyone speak to the implications of strapping a bar to an exposed armature and yanking up and down on it? Will such actions force me to purchase a new armature ($350 according to @Old_Houseboater)? Good induction heat tools are very expensive, and I’m wondering if I should try to save my existing armature by trying to remove it with heat vice brute force and put the money I’d be spending on a new armature towards one of these induction tools.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with my motor (well at least there wasn’t before I pulled the case off), so the armature should still be good. It’s only the leaking spline shaft seal that I’m trying to fix. I just don’t know how sensitive these armatures are to scratches, dings, etc.

Ok- You will be gifted a pass on this one because your are new.

OH is the man that has probably forgotten more Gem Car cr@p than anybody else in the group. He is THE motor and gearbox guy. If he says the armature will survive I would trust him.

His suggestion does not imply you are supposed to try and flip the car over with the extension pipe or jumping off a ladder onto it. It is just to gain a bit more mechanical advantage on the problem. Start off with slight pressure and ramp up slowly. Depending on how stuck the coupler is may take a couple days of wiggling.

Alt - put the motor back together ignore the problem and get ready to sell the car.

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I wasn’t at all questioning the idea of strapping a bar to the armature. @Old_Houseboater only mentioned the gears wouldn’t be damaged (post #20), no mention of what it would do to the armature. Since he threw out the price of a new armature, I wanted to see if he was implying I would damage it. My only goal was to find out the consequences of my actions. Nothing more than that.

Have I over-stayed my welcome with your suggestion to sell the car?

Not at all. Just a plan B. Good possibility that is what happened to you. Last owner just passed the problem on to the next guy to deal with.

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The previous owners were elderly and lived in “The Villages” of Florida. This car is absolutely mint and they took great care of it. I don’t think they knowingly passed the buck on anything. I blame salt air and age more than anything.

You get all different adapters that you can wrap on anything you can fit it around. Also the heating wire has a casing around it but I have used it both was .

How many watts is the proper induction wrench?
Much larger than DIY kits?

Think I’m going to play with this air cooled one. Assuming it works fast. Don’t know.

Edit:
Oops, too many disclaimers. :frowning:

Using my method you will not ruin the armature. Did you try grabbing the end of the armature and jerking it up and down.

You might add 4 oz. transmission stop leak and put a few miles on it. Some of these seal swell additives work pretty well and last a couple of years. If it’s a nitrile seal you should be good to go. If its Viton forget it. I don’t think they started viton until 2016.

The only thing on the armature that is sensitive in the commutator.
Note: you can do some prying between the transmission case while baring it up and down. Strongly suggest you remove the bearing and use a piece of pipe.

I believe most of the suggestions are coming from guys that have never seen a GEM up close in their lives. there is novay your going to get an induction coil any where near the coupling.

By the way you replace the 7hp GE with a 7.5 Advance. $450 plus Shipping.

READ THIS

@Old_Houseboater . Thanks for that link. I read that thread already prior to starting this new one. It’s how I got the idea to rotate the motor and let the weight of the unbolted case rest on different areas of the spline shaft. Still no luck. I also appreciate your comments on the heat inductor. A cool tool no doubt, but probably best saved for another time.

Unlike the motor pictured in the above link, my motor and gearbox has no visible corrosion. I would not have thought it would be this stubborn.

Getting penetrating oil to seep down into the collar is tough because I don’t have gravity helping me out. Worse case, I’ll remove the gearbox with frozen armature, turn it on its side, and continue spraying fluid into the collar. However I’ll try your pipe method first knowing that I won’t damage the armature or internal gears.

I emailed you about replacement spline shaft bearings and seals for my Spicer 012AS112-1 gearbox. You responded and said you can get parts for some. Confirm you can get replacements for my specific gearbox? The Atlanta GEM dealer told me they aren’t available and was no help.

All classic gearboxes are available used. I sell kits for all ratios. $220 shipped. Complete new gear sets are available

The unit I use at my shop is a INDUCTION INNOVATIONS - Mini-Ductor II Handheld I believe that they are 1000 watts I used mine on a 18kw generator with a locked shaft as well.

You, nah.

The cart may though at the point when we suggest you shoot it with automatic weapons, light it on fire, crush it with a bulldozer and finally shoot the pieces into a decaying orbit around the sun.

Not being an 99-04, it’s all still good.

Glad to report success: @Old_Houseboater can now claim his technique is 8 for 1. Here’s what I did if anyone is interested (see attached photos) . . .

  1. Purchased four 3"-5" adjustable clamps from Home Depot (in the dryer vent isle). I originally bought 6" clamps, but I couldn’t tighten them down enough because the bands are not slotted all the way.

  2. Bought a 36" solid steel stake (next to the rebar in the concrete isle). It was long enough to provide the leverage I needed and solid enough that it wouldn’t bend. It was also narrow enough to fit in the little slack I had left in the clamps. I would not have been able to get a piece of 3/4" steel pipe in there using the clamps I had.

  3. Sacrificed an old T-shirt to wrap around the armature.

  4. Clamped the stake to the thickest part of the armature (I did not want to come close to the wound copper).

  5. Got on the other end of the metal stake and lifted up and down in short, rapid spurts . . . no luck.

  6. Decided to put some heat on the coupler using my plumber’s torch. I used the yellow bottle (MAP PRO) because they generate the hottest flame. The space to get to the coupler is tight, only around 1/4". I only applied heat for 30 seconds and pointed the flame straight down to avoid melting the rubber bellow affixed to the side of the gearbox case. I had a fire extinguisher handy just in case.

  7. Repeated the rapid up and down movement on the end of the metal stake . . . CAME OFF IN 5 SECONDS!

Things I learned:

  • I sprayed a bunch of penetrating oil at the base of the coupler, but I think that made more of a mess than anything. There is just no way to get in that tight location, plus you don’t have gravity helping the oil seep into the coupler.

  • Heat is your friend. I believe the induction tool discussed is a valid way to get heat on that coupler, but that’s assuming you have the wire attachment that you can wrap around yourself. I couldn’t justify the cost of the tool since I don’t do much of this kind of work.

  • I will clean up the spline shaft to determine the condition. Since it was seized on the coupler, I believe the shaft is still quite usable. If there was a lot of play, I wouldn’t have had a problem removing the motor and a new spline shaft kit would be justified. As it is, I will replace the rubber seal to fix the leak as well as the two shaft bearings (due to all the up and down movement I put on them when trying to remove the armature). @Old_Houseboater told me he has replacements in stock.

  • I found a local guy who will overhaul my motor so I should be back in business soon.



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