Motor facelift

I got the new part from Azure Dynamics; and a friend came by so I gave the AC 55 a face lift.

As always when dealing with a +200lbs motor, the first thing you want to do is put in on wheels. Next we removed the four long bolts; then applied a hammer to break the poly seal. Once that gave, the front pulled straight off. I was worried the bearing might have found a permanent home in the old face plate. But everything was in great shape.

Motor Porn.

After pulling the old face plate off, I transfered the spring and applied new grease. As always since this motor will be out in the environments (such as it is in CA) I used my preferred marine grease.

Old is green, new is red.

I'll skip the 1/2 hour we took getting the motor cleaned and prepped. However Beth at Azure had checked with one of the motor techs; and let me know a couple of the fins would have to ground down. The power grind took care of the four aluminium fins faster than is took me to correctly spell aluminium (only had to remove a 8th of an inch).

I then applied some poly caulk around the seam of the new face plate and bolted it home.

Looking fierce.

I'm happy to report the motor spins like a dream. Had I known it was going to go so smoothly I would have spray painted the motor black; I figured I'd be opening and closing the motor 4 or 5 times before everything lined up. Maybe I'll give it a little touch up.

Anyone need an old face plate from an AC55 motor? It's only 25lbs...