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(ET) lift motor thoughts
Ok, I'm getting together a few Delco motors and am thinking of going
into the "fix the $#@&& lift motor" repair business. :-)
It looks like the major sources of failure are torched armatures/fields,
burned out circuit breakers, and burned common wires. The last one
seems to be everywhere; those wires use el-cheapo insulation and are
just too small a gauge (14-16 or so) for 30 amps. Some motors actually
get to the point of wearing down the brushes.
So here's my thought: I'll replace parts with Delco parts, and replace
the long ground wire runs and the little jumper wire to the field with
10 gauge THHN-2 wire. THHN-2 is expensive, but unlike normal wire (40
degree C rating) and THHN (60 degree C) THHN-2 has a 90 degree
insulation rating. That coupled with being 10 gauge should stop the
smoking wire problem. On the ones with Delco frames I can just put a
hole in the back, seal it with epoxy, and run the common wire to a nice
connector. On the Elec-trak motors I suppose I can just put a connector
on the back.
Now for the question: What is it worth to the list? Anything? Probably
be an hour a motor, so my time is never going to be compensated (labor o
love, whatever) and there is the cost of parts. But what would people
reasonably pay for rebuilt lift motors?
Or should we just find something else?
Chris