Quote:
Originally Posted by Diseasel300
WD-40 is not a lubricant, hopefully the 3-in-1 you used was in the blue can for electric motors, the black can will form a varnish and ruin the bearings.
The fact the motor is working now is coincidental. Perhaps you pulled on a wire with a flaky connection somewhere. Shorting bars on a commutator will cause the fan to draw excessive amperage and run slow or blow fuses.
If you got WD-40 on the commutator, pull the motor back out and clean that crap off. You'll ruin the commutator AND the motor brushes by leaving it on there. Use Acetone and clean the commutator and brushes well to get the oil and residue off, it has no place being there.
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Appreciate your input Diseasel. The W116 motor is different from the one on the W123. Why do I say that???? Here is why. There is a closed housing with only a single port of access into it. I was or am not disposed to tearing the motor apart and rebrush it until the time comes when I have to. I never did pull the motor apart. My mission is to get the drive non-critical part back in within a few hours and I figure that the WD40 was my cleaner. Then I shot a fair amount of 3 in 1 to do the lubing. Of course I would do as you suggest had I decided on a rebuild/rebrush.
This motor never failed to run. It failed to turn off. You mentioned " Perhaps you pulled on a wire with a flaky connection somewhere. Shorting bars on a commutator will cause the fan to draw excessive amperage and run slow or blow fuses.". I am unable to point to any connection that would result in this symptom. Perhaps you might be more specific. I vibrated and rattled the hell out of it in initial testing but ran to perfection except for the squeak. There was absolutely no play radially and a tiny amount <1/32 inch (my guess) axially.
Since the motor is moving full air with massive torque I do not believe WD40 will destroy the commutator. The brush(soft carbon) on the commutator which is Cu is a self cleaning interface IMHO. I am NOT an expert on this but I do respect that you may have years of experience. The motor runs and sounds like perfection. Lets see how long it will last. If it runs until rebrush time then I know I am into it and I hope it will be in hot weather. When that happens I will report for the anecdotal benefit of this case.
I do think this is a great website.
Thank you very much for your posting and solid advice.