I can't remember if I ever put lube on the plastic rod assembly. if you do this, don't put on too much and use a silicone lube. I'd try to clean it first, prior to trying lube.

I'd first probably just take a look at it (the entire assembly end-to-end) and see if it's binding somewhere or is dirty or if someone else lubed it with WD40 sometime. Clean everything (you can) with a rag/toothbrush with solvent to remove any dirt/gunk/dried lube. Then go from there if that doesn't help.

WD40 is good for what it was intended for, but in a pinball machine it picks up a lot of dust and eventually becomes sticky/gummy...thus making the whole situation worse. Since it is a kerosene based material, it does work well to clean the old lube off parts, then use a solvent based cleaner to remove the WD40. Do this only if after trying a solvent based cleaner first, the old lube is still there.

Robert

I wouldnt lube it. There were plenty parted out or there may be a new motor available.

To the loudness, I recall mine being pretty loud and it worked fine.

I would try to get it as clean as possible and then exercise it a bit in test mode -- if it still has problems then spring for the new motor -- love it when that mist ball is working well, good luck!!!

I've never had a Problem w/ the motor on mine , but I suppose it could short out , get Hot and lock up like any other motor driven device on a pin .. I had to replace 2 stepper motor's on the Slot machine of Who Dunnit .. Good Luck ..

WD--__Slot_mechanism-1__.jpg WD--__Slot_mechanism_,.jpg

If you need a new one...

http://www.marcospecialties.com/control/keywordsearch;jsessionid=5D925BBD09434C04411421D0DF05A5FB.jvm1?SEARCH_STRING=a-16050

Before I spent $70 on a new one, I'd try to take the old one apart, it's probably all gunked up.

Robert

Spin the mist assy by hand with the motor removed. Is the spinning rod binding anywhere? Are the brackets on both ends parallel to each other and not tweaked?

Take the whole assy out, clean everything, and reinstall it. Might help!

Motor gears, in my opinion, are the ONLY exception to the rule as far as lubrication goes.

One drop of 3 in 1 oil on the gear(s) should be plenty.

Glad you got it all figured out.

Great...do you have a p/n for the motor.

People would probably like to know that if they do a search later for the same or similar issue.

Robert

Yes, please. For less than $10 it's worth having. Also, are you sure it's the same speed and everything?

Funny....I just won the ebay bid for a used mist assembly.

I used this radioshack hobby motor and controlled it by putting 4.3 ohms in series with it (5.1 ohm resistor 25 W in parallel with two 25 ohm 10 W). This resistors are the white block kind and do get warm if you keep running the motor during test. I didn't have the resistors to try to control the motor in shunt but you get better low rpm torque with series control than shunt anyways. This slowed the motor down to about what I found it to be with the older motor.

Also, the gear that was on the axel of the old motor, I couldn't slip it off so I cut it off with my dremel. I then cut the axel a little shorter on the new radioshack motor and then used lock tight to put the old gear on the axel backwards. By putting it on backwards, I didn't have to drill out the portion of the old axel that was stuck in the gear. I then cut off a little bit of the old gear so the case could shut correctly. It works and I used blue locktite so I should be able to pull it off if I need to. Drilling out the revits on the gearbox was a pain but if you drill them out you'll be able to lubricate the gears regularly and the mounting screws will hold shut the case anyways.

I watched one of the Pappa videos on how fast the ball moves across the field (which is faster than my old motor) and used a 25 ohm W potentiometer in parallel with the 4.3 ohms and just dialed it in until it matched the Pappa video. The total series resistance is probably around 3.5 ohms. This could have done with just the 5 ohm resistor in parallel with the potentiometer. The point of putting the potentiometer in parallel with resistor/s is to get by with small wattage potentiometer. RadioShack didn't carry any above 3 W.