Electric Motor Repair Questions

[Gazz]

I have a Baldor 3hp 3450rpm TEFC motor that was "seized" from being in the weather. I took it to a motor repair shop and the guy said sure, no problem. I called a few months later and he said he was real busy and had not been able to get to it. 6 months later I stopped and asked about and saw that it hadn't moved from the spot on his bench where I put it when I dropped it off. I asked him nicely to please fix it up figuring it would be no more than a 3 hour job or less for him. He called the next day to tell me that it was nor repairable and that the armature was rusted solid to the field and offered to throw it out for me. Well thanks for that but told him I would come and get it. He had taken off one end bell and yes it was a bit rusty in there but when I got it back to my shop, a light tap with a copper mallet moved the armature. A few more taps and it was out. There were some flakes of rust here and there but it all seems okay with the exception of one bearing which was a little crunchy and what I think is part of the starter switch which is what I have questions about. There is a phenolic disc with some stamped parts under it and a compression spring. When I used a screwdriver to poke the spring around it moves freely but none of the parts that the spring bears against will move so I wonder if something is rusted to the shaft. I have never attempted repairing something like this so it is all unfamiliar to me. Should I be able to move any of these parts? Thanks for any help with this.

 

[DJ2]

Find another motor shop. As a parallel experience, I recently had a Baldor motor in for rewinding, the guy screwed it up and basically said, here, come and get it.

 

[redlee]

Spray the Centrifugal Switch with some good Penetrating oil, keep moving and things should loosen up.
New switches are available.

 

[dalmatiangirl61]

The disk should slide a 1/4" inch or so on the shaft, just need to figure out which direction to move it. Replace both bearings while in there and cleanup any rust. It sat on shelf at repair shop because a new one would be cheaper than the repair bill.

 

[Gazz]

While the motor was languishing in his shop, I looked in the surplus center catalog which has some very competitive pricing and a similar motor was around $800. I have since looked elsewhere and found them for much less but now I feel I have to fix it. I did buy new bearings for it which were cheap enough. I also soaked everything with Kroil but haven't tried moving any parts yet. Like you said, which way does it move?

 

[e-fishin-c]

Curious which motor repair shop, maybe a city or town and I can figure it out.

 

[PackardV8]

The two formerly affordable electric motor shops in town closed years ago. The one remaining shop only does industrial accounts; walk-in customers not welcome.

jack vines

 

[deltap]

Look at the switch in the end bell and you should be able to see which way the disc moves. The switch should be closed to start and open when the motor comes up to speed.

 

[Gazz]

It was Raymond Electric in Brentwood (I think) on Rt 125. Talking with a finish carpenter at the local pub, he provided a similar experience as mine about the same shop.
Thanks for the tip on looking at the end bell. I'll check that in the morning.

 

[Superbowl]

The problem with something that has been wet is that he could fix it but problems could crop up later. Most shop labor to fix a car or other things is around $150 hour now. Let's say he spends two hours on your $800 new motor with a used value of $300. Then he puts $50 in parts in it. Now it has cost you $350. How are you going to feel if a week later the motor has other problems?

 

[neilho]

If you want to drive as far as West Lebanon, there's a good shop there.

DJS Electric motor, 5 Railroad Ave, West Lebanon, 298-8126. One man shop, never bought anything from him, but he checked out a couple small motors for me, spent a bit of time at it and refused payment.

 

[Bill D]

They make electronic start switches with no moving parts that can be retrofitted into motors like yours.
Bill D

 

[GregSY]

Throw it out an buy a new one. As others noted, it's not worth fixing unless you are living in a post-apocalytpic New York City and you have no other choices.

Many motor makers, when selling to industrial buyers, have a simple repair policy for any motor under about 75HP.....if it fails during warranty, throw it out and they'll provide a new one. If you fail another one...they'll start asking questions.

 

[DDoug]

The problem with something that has been wet is that he could fix it but problems could crop up later. Most shop labor to fix a car or other things is around $150 hour now. Let's say he spends two hours on your $800 new motor with a used value of $300. Then he puts $50 in parts in it. Now it has cost you $350. How are you going to feel if a week later the motor has other problems?

Yup ^^^
Op stated "Flakes of rust"
So the laminations start rusting in between, and now your insulation get's punctured.

 

[BT Fabrication]

buy a good used one, anything under 7.5hp isn't worth spending $600 on a $300 used good motor

 

[mottrhed]

Small motor shops seem to be disappearing, because IMO most motors worth rebuilding are more on the spindle side of the spectrum and they arent qualified for that, and what they can do is too cheap to replace that they cant compete.

In your case, the motor will almost certainly work fine once cleaned up, but you may have issues in the future as the insulation breaks down. Depending on what its use is this may or may not be an acceptable situation, luckily for you its a cheap motor to replace should the worst case scenario happen.