ETEK Motor Repairs

OK, I ran my ETEK for a bit and the rotor started binding on the brush-side magnet.  So I started looking for slop.

The magnets are located on the two housing halves.  The rotor is located between them with the bearing and the shaft, along with some shims and a bearing lock plate, on one end only- the sprocket end (as opposed to the brush end).  So, there’s where I figure there has to be some slop.

As far as I can see, the shims and the circlip seem OK.  The shims measure out at a perfect .010 each, and the circlip fits snugly in it’s little circlip groove.  The bearing has a bit of slop from side to side, so I’ve ordered a new one.  I’m going to hazard a guess that it’s moving .015 or .020, at the most.  I figure it can’t hurt to just plop a new one in.

But here’s what I found that may actually be significant.  The bearing locking plate, on the inside of the housing, doesn’t seat up against the housing.  Here’s what I mean.

This is the bearing sitting in the housing.

The outer diameter of the bearing is flush with the face of the housing.  Here’s the plate, sitting over that face:

That, once it’s bolted in, should hold the bearing flush with the face.  The problem is, it doesn’t.  The plate is slightly larger in diameter than the faceplate relief.  Here’s what it looks like from the other side, with the bearing removed, showing the space between the plate and the face.  It measures out to about .035.

…corresponding to the same depth of the relief on the inside between the outer casting (where the plate is sitting) and the inside face (where the plate should be sitting):

So, it should be a simple fix to just grind down a little of the edge diameter of the locking plate so it has a better fit. I’m not at all convinced that this will be enough to keep my rotor from binding, but it certainly isn’t right.   Stay tuned.

For the record- this is a “Manta” ETEK motor from eBay- reportedly never used, and “remanufactured”.

ECDRA Electric Drag Racing Expo in May ’12

Well, DAYum.  The week after our First Annual ElectroPalooza, the ECDRA is hosting their Electric Drag Racing Expo Event in West Lebanon NY.  Hell.  That’s practically down the street.

Here’s the linky to the event.

Be there, bitches!

Briggs and Stratton ETEK Teardown: via TeamHurtz.com

Want to open up the ETEK?  Piece of cake.  Here’s a great 3-step post on it, via TeamHurtz.com.  Great suggestions on when to mark the positions of the parts you’re taking off, too.

Also found this manual: etekmanual Form #275225 ETEK Manual

Now.  Here’s what I did.  I don’t have photos, because, frankly, I was more interested in doing the repair than showing how to do it.  Sorry.

First, I pulled the cover as shown above.  I can’t rave too much about the sweetness of having a good puller.  The one I have is a basic three-leg gear puller, and by taking everything off except two of the brackets, I was able to reach below the legs of the face plate here and toss a pin across the two puller bracket holes.  The cover came off in a heartbeat.

All you’ve done at this point is to pull the cover off.  The magnet got sucked into the rotor when you undid the bolts.

Going to the other side, undo the circlip on the shaft.  There are a few shaft shims, take them out, and then, with a rubber mallet give the shaft a bunch of hard whacks (after you’ve undone the bolts on that side too).  The shaft should move out of the bearing at that point, and the rotor will come out, with the magnets stuck to it.

I then reconfigured my puller with a couple of brackets bolted to the magnets, and used that to pull the magnets off.  I had a few pieces of wood to stick in there between the rotor and the magnet as it separated, and once it got to about an inch and a half away, I could grab the magnet and pull it off.

Watch your fingers.

I was pulling the thing apart because there was some significant binding when the motor turned.  The first thing I saw was something that looked like this, which freaked me out:

The corner of the rotor was all ground off, on one area.  I figured my motor was toast.  I then found this video, showing the same thing, and so I figured that grinding was done in the factory to balance the rotor.  Remember to breathe.

I cleaned everything, checked stuff, noticed the rubbing was on the brush-side magnet from the outside of the rotor, and checked the rotor for wobble.  Sure enough, there was a little run-out, and I tried tapping it gently with a rubber mallet where it was a little proud.  It brought it in, remarkably, and it ran fairly true.  I have no idea why it was like that, and no idea if the problem will come back, but after reassembling the motor it seems to have taken care of it.

The one trick to re-assemble the motor is to bolt the magnets into the housings before you put it back together.  If you don’t you’ll be trying to place the magnets on the rotor and get them centered.  That ain’t easy.  Then when you try to bolt it together again you’ll have a reach to get to the threads, and be pulling the magnet off the rotor with your little bolts and not a lot of thread.  Not easy either.  If you place the magnets in the housing halves, bolt them in, then assemble them, the magnets get firmly seated, the bolts don’t get stressed, and the magnets help you by pulling the whole thing together.

Yeah.  On that.  When you’re putting the brush side housing on (after you’ve put the output side on and replaced the shims and the circlip) keep your fingers out of the way.  It doesn’t go in gently.  It snaps it right in…

Total ET of the teardown, without messing with the puller for the first time?  About 5 minutes, including sipping coffee.  Reassembly?  About 3.  Don’tcha love a motor with one moving part?

Geekin’ Out, Battery Style: In-Plane Vacancy-Enabled High-Power Si–Graphene Composite Electrodes

It seems like new technology keeps popping up monthly on the battery front, and it’s hard to know what’s possibly real and what’s just vaporware, but Domenick found this very intriguing new lithium/silicon technology, that seems pretty legitimate.  Check out the post on Autoblog Green, here.  It comes from a story from Northwestern University, here.

Here’s the short story from the Northwestern site:

“… First, to stabilize the silicon in order to maintain maximize charge capacity, they sandwiched clusters of silicon between the graphene sheets. This allowed for a greater number of lithium ions in the electrode while utilizing the flexibility of graphene sheets to accommodate the volume changes of silicon during use.

“Now we almost have the best of both worlds,” Kung said. “We have much higher energy density because of the silicon, and the sandwiching reduces the capacity loss caused by the silicon expanding and contracting. Even if the silicon clusters break up, the silicon won’t be lost.”

Kung’s team also used a chemical oxidation process to create miniscule holes (10-20 nanometers) in the graphene sheets – termed “in-plane defects” – so the lithium ions would have a “shortcut” into the anode. This reduced the time it takes the battery to recharge by up to 10 times.”

NEWS FLASH!!! Shelina Moreda at ElectroPalooza?!! (Dept of OMGOMGOMG)

Check it out, bitches. 

Yep.  That’s the Bad Girl of Electric Racing, Shelina (“Ride it like you stole it”) Moreda, rockin’ the May 2012 First Ever Annual ElectroPalooza.

This thing is actually starting to get some legs.  As you can see in the comments, Lightning and Team Zero wanna come.  Brammo might be there.  Shelina has hinted that her CRP team may show.  There’s more.  Much, much more.

The main information page for the event will be here, on www.electropalooza.com.  It’s going to be hosted by the Solar and Wind Expo Maryland guys, May 11-13, 2012.  If you want to help plan this thing, ask to join our Facebook Page, here.

Sorry, gotta go.  Shelina needs to talk to me…

 

Electricity Illustrated: Volts, Amps and Ohms and Stuff

Simple as that.  Wish I could credit this, it was shared like eleventy million times on the FB.  If you know where it came from, lemmee knowz.

I Heart Shelina Moreda. (video)

Ride it like you stole it, girl.  Ride it like you stole it.

TTXGPmatters Interviews Thad Wolff (podcast)

If you’re into the TTXGP and racing and stuff, you have to visit my buddy Rich’s site over at TTXGPmatters…  He’s got his opinions, but by god, he knows what the hell he’s talking about and can back (most of) them up.

Rich had the chance to sit down with Thad Wolff, a pretty much legendary rider, from where I sit, and someone who I share a lot of perspective with.  He’s old, like me.  He was riding back in the ’60s and ’70s like me.  He knew legendary riders like Freddie Spencer and Kenny Roberts, like, uh, well…  I wanted to.  Above all, he pretty much feels a bike is a bike, he likes controlling things rather than letting a computer do it, and I suspect he likes steel double downtube frames.

OK, that last one was just a guess.

Anyway, Rich got him talking, and it’s great to hear his perspective on all this stuff.  Go here to listen: TTXGPod Episode 0: Interview with Thad Wolff. (Though all the pre-interview banter is interesting, if you want to cut right to Thad, go to 24:44 or so…  but you’ll miss hearing the correct way to pronounce MotoCyzzzzilles.)

History- Interview with Betti Thomas, Team BettiMoto

(President Vito Ippolito delivered the prestigious 2010 FIM Environmental Award to Betti Thomas)

Thomas kindly took the time to answer my endless questions, which I’ve translated here.  This is truly an honor to be able to help tell this story.  Here it is:

What made you think to make an electric motorcycle and race it?  

We have built an electric motorcycle because we have always been passionate about motorcycles of all types to 360 degrees.  A friend of my father, who for years ran electric cars asked us, why not try to make an electric motorcycle? Racing F.I.A. (International Automobile Federation) is a category IV, which also includes the two-wheel vehicles (category were FIA racing cars and go-kart electric separately for each category.)

 What was the motor and battery on your first bikes?  How did that change over the years?  

For the first motorcycles were common and heavy batteries used for starting.  In the second motorcycle batteries are lead-gel bike more performance.  The engines were brush engines.

Who else raced with you?  How many electric bikes? 

Many Italians-eg Centenaro Aurelius, who won the championship in 2001 but the competitors were from all over Europe- mostly from Austria.  That the biggest event of the season with dozens of participants, but not all vehicles were very competitive.

What races did you compete in?  

The Solar Electro-FIA was organized primarily in Europe, had also planned a race in Japan but no one has ever had the economic resources to go to Japan, the Japanese will come to Europe.

In Italy there was the FIVE (Italian Federation of Alternative Energy Vehicles) so the two were a world championship with an Italian with the FIA ​​and the FIVE. Races were held in Italy in conjunction.

Races were held in two rounds from about 12 km each, between the first and the second race there was a minimum of three hours where you could charge the battery.

Were you racing with gas bikes, or was it only electrics?

In my humble rider career I raced only with electric bikes, bikes with “normal” I have only trained!

What’s your relationship with the FIM now?  The TTXGP?  

In 2006 or 2005, I remember, we were contacted if we were going to participate in a competition that likely would take place in tourist Tropy with electric bikes, but at the time and lead-gel batteries for a ride of 66 km was too, only with Li Po was possible.

What do you think is the future of electric motorcycle racing?

The future of electric bikes I see very positive.  The question to ask is not whether electric bikes will become the future of our everyday lives, but when!

My thought is: one day fossil fuels will end, but I think the motorcycle and everything that entails will never end, the electric bikes are the natural evolution. What type of battery will be the future, we can not know, but the bikes will be electric.

What do you feel is the part you played in where we are with today’s racing?  Do you feel you guys paved the way, or do you think it would have happened anyway?  

I think we have done something great in our small way, surely it would’ve happened anyway but to be sure, we were an inspiration to many.

…

Indeed.  And thanks.

Laguna Seca ePower- 2010

EICMA Scorecard 2011

Last year’s EICMA saw a ton of electric motorcycles hit the scene.  This year, there were a crap-ton, pretty much dispelling any doubts about it being a flash in the pan.  Who came out on top?  Here’s my short list.

First Place: Zero Motorcycles

New model line.  Great looking specs.  AND a delivery date.  Game over.

It seems pretty simple, if you’re coming to this as an enthusiast looking to buy a bike, right?  Here’s a new company building bikes, showing specs, and promising delivery within a pretty short time-frame…  yep.  That’s what you’d think. That’s pretty much how you sell products.

Second Place: KTM

I already posted this video, but here it is again.  There’s nothing more than simple, balls-to-the-wall fun here.  And that, to me, is what these bikes are all about…   hell, I may just have to build me a dirt bike because of this.

KTM gets it.

Third Place: Honda

Wait.  What?  Honda wasn’t even at the show.  Yeah.  Exactly. Honda played the “Conspicuous Absence” game masterfully…  they were at the show, this huge electric bike show, and didn’t show anything electric.  Instead they leaked possibly the coolest series of photos to come out last week…  their concept bikes due to be announced in the Tokyo show in December.  Here is one of those:

Without even showing up, this bike stole the show.  Why?  It’s freakin gorgeous for one.  It’s part of what looks like a major effort by a major manufacture in an exciting new market.  Spare me all the “it’s only a concept, they’ll never produce it” crap.  If in a year or two it doesn’t show up, then fine, but at this point I think there’s a lot better chance of this baby hitting the streets than anything else out there like it.

This was a masterful play by Honda, and, no surprise, Honda gets it too.  Besides the fact they’re talking about dropping one of their automotive drivetrains into the thing.  (Yes, they, too, released specs…)

Honorable Mention goes to Brammo.

Did we get any firm specs on the Empulse?  Nope.  Any more information on delivery dates for any of the line- ten bikes or so with only one shipping? Un uh..  What we did get via the Brammo Facebook page was a fairly constant stream of shots of the Brammo Babes.  Now, there are some who may make disparaging comments about how if you don’t have anything new to say, say it with cheesecake, but not me.  Oh no.  How could you think something like that for a minute when you see a face like this?

…though I hope one of those old guys buys her some lunch.  Who are those guys anyway?  Who really wants to know?

Brammo also posted a snap of the coolest bike there.  Unfortunately it runs on dinosaur remains.

This is a bike from SBay Motors.  Kind of ironic, huh?  Now, take that badass frame and wrap it around a UCM motor and some lipo, and now you’re talking.

Anyway, Brammo wins for best diversion, and best snapshots of the show.  I got more of a feel of what the show was like from what they posted on their FB page than anything else I saw during the week.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Husquevarna.  It’s just preeeety.  And it’s from BMW- see their page on it here.  Do I know anything about the Husky production?  Not much, just that I think it’s pretty much a slam dunk that they, like Honda and KTM, could put it into production with the click of a mouse.

BTW, Jensen did a great story on that here, on Asphalt and Rubber.