Does the motor itself have any identifying marks on it, like a part number? If so, google that number, as it appears on the motor, and perhaps you will find a replacement for just the motor. Gearbox should be easily removable.

Grain of salt here as I've never seen the assembly... But usually one can source the motor for something like this.

Good luck!

motor breaks right when color dmd announced.... bad luck

The problem with finding a motor is going to be the gear on the motor. Although you may be able to find the motor by the number on it, I doubt that it will have the gear on it. Transfering the gear will be pretty much impossible. Also, what happens when you go through all the trouble of researching the motor and finally pull a rabbit out of a hat and source a motor, and then a year later the gearbox wears out? I say just bite the bullet, buy the gearbox and motor and never have to worry about it again.

If you can source the motor via the numbering / label on the existing one, the old gear on the old motor stub shaft will most likely fit on the new motor stub shaft. Why do you say transferring the gear will be pretty much impossible? I doubt Stern used a custom-made motor/pinion gear assembly...

Depending on the type of motor it is, it is most likely very inexpensive compared to the overall gear motor assembly.

Highly doubt the gearbox will wear out anytime soon - not a harsh application in this case.

If you do take apart the gear motor assembly, pay attention to any lubricant that is/was inside. If you rebuild, you'll want to replenish / replace if at all possible to prolong the life of the gears.

That all said, I'd certainly be inclined to pony up and buy the replacement part from Stern. Then I'd have the old gearbox as a spare for the new gear motor assembly... Just trying to help the OP potentially save some money by using my past experiences.

OP - feel free to PM me pics of the assembly. I'd be happy to help if I can.

The gear is going to be a very tight press fit on the shaft. Removing it will probably require a very special puller. Pressing the gear onto the new shaft will have a very high probability of bending the new motor shaft.

I am guessing that Stern went to a gearbox manufacturing company and gave them all the specs and the company pieced the parts together with their existing components to come up with the right voltage, speed, torque, mounting, etc.

As a side note, I once tried to buy 1 gear for a gearbox on a motorized louver assembly from the company that made the gearbox. Nope, no way, no how. They would only sell me the whole new motorized gearbox for about $200.

I hope you got your problem fixed. Although it’s an old thread, it was helpful to me because I was having a similar problem. I took the ship assembly out of the game and took the motor and gear box off because the ship wouldn’t move. I checked to ensure I was getting proper voltage at the motor plug with my multimeter and that was registering 22 volts when the ship test mode was activated in the diagnostics menu. I put a pair of vice grips on the motor shaft and spun it. It seemed a little stuck at first. I plugged the motor back in and behold! It ran. I think what happened was that somehow the motor and gear box got out of sync with the switches so it couldn’t complete a cycle. Then the motor got hung up and tried to run and the heat caused it to stick. Once I spun the shaft and re-adjusted the assembly to line up properly (motor/gearbox with the actual ship so that the bolt holes lined up) and put it back in the game, everything worked.