(Topic ID: 268351)

Opening a Shaker Motor to Clean and eliminate squeak

By Gogdog

3 years ago



Topic Stats

  • 9 posts
  • 3 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 3 years ago by Gogdog
  • Topic is favorited by 3 Pinsiders

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    #1 3 years ago

    Ok, I have 2 shaker motors that both work great, but just squeak. One in a AFMrLE and one in GOT Prem.

    I'm one that tries to live the "reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra, and am cheap, so instead of buying $30 replacement motors and throwing out perfectly good working motors, I would rather open them up and directly clean them.

    I have already tried spraying contact cleaner, and even Teflon dry lube through the holes but it didn't do anything. I would rather clean and add 1 tiny drop of oil to the bushings (even though its supposedly not needed but I'm desperate).

    Anyway...with smaller RC car motors, that use much smaller DC motors, you can just pry off some small tabs to open the "top" of the motor. But these are substantially more heavy-duty.

    From the looks of the motor, it seems I should be able to pry these little tabs up, but there is zero space under them to try and get a screwdriver under them. ->

    motor (resized).pngmotor (resized).png

    Or its something to do with these white plastic looking tabs?

    motor2 (resized).pngmotor2 (resized).png

    Any advice here for getting this opened up?

    #3 3 years ago
    Quoted from tomtest:

    If it's the sleeve bearing and you have it vertical, just a drop of oil at the bearing should gravitate down the shaft, if it's not the bearing but something interior toward the armature then I don't think oil will cure that as the noise will quickly resurface.

    You mean, hold the motor vertical and then apply a drop of oil here, spin the arm some and just have it stay vertical for a while to let the oil seep down the shaft?

    motor3 (resized).pngmotor3 (resized).png

    #5 3 years ago

    Well, I put a drop of oil on each end and that hasn't done anything. So ...still looking for a way to open this up or a better way to clean it. Thoughts on something like this? ->

    #7 3 years ago

    Well....this didn't work.

    I used CRC Contact Cleaner....and used quite a bit, into every hole. Cleaner came out perfectly clear.

    20200511_213325 (resized).jpg20200511_213325 (resized).jpg

    Then, I went ahead and tried to do what the RC car owners do, and clean the motor in water.

    I fortunately had an 8 AA battery holder so I can get 12V connected to the motor. I bought distilled water, and ran the motor for like 10 minutes. The RC car guys' motors have the water being black, from dirt, but also from carbon build up on the bushings. However this motor....water was perfectly clean. I went ahead and sprayed contact cleaner again just to flush out any water. Then put a drop of oil on each shaft.

    20200511_214952 (resized).jpg20200511_214952 (resized).jpg

    Unfortunately....same squeak. So I'm still at square one with this. Now, I'm not even sure what I would clean/oil inside if I could even open it. I wonder if I sprayed wd-40 in it if it would help, though not sure what damage that would cause either.

    #8 3 years ago

    Bump..any other ideas here?

    2 weeks later
    #9 3 years ago

    Ok, I took the motor to an electric motor shop...and they said you can't open it. Basically...even if you could, you couldn't fix the type of bearings in the sealed bearing area anyway, or clean off anything else. They said contact cleaner is what you should try first and also adding an oil to see if it helps, but if it doesnt'.....they said these are basically made to be dispensable so just buy another.

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