Broken flange on hub motor, welding worth it?

[davidyerger]

Minor ebike accident last week left me pretty much OK, but a 1" piece of flange was busted off my hub motor.



Before I go on Items Wanted for a replacement motor shell I thought I'd ask here if it's worth trying to repair instead. I imagine it would require awesome weldling skills and/or equipment to A. not warp the flange and B. not demagnetize the magnets. I got one quote so far and it's close to the price of a new motor.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Icewrench]

Replace the motor.
I`d never trust it.
Maybe I`m a chicken.

What caused it to fall apart?

 

[davidyerger]

Well, remember that song from Ace of Base, "The Sign" ? I didn't see the sign (titled something like "BE PREPARED TO STOP"), helpfully placed square in the middle of the shoulder of the road, due to a unique confluence of sun in my eyes, fog in my goggles, and me being too stupid to recognizing those as being sufficient cause to stop instead of tilting my goggles with my right hand in hopes of getting the fog to clear...

Oh, sorry, you meant the mechanical cause. Spoke might have got caught in the sign on the way past, more likely from the bike falling over. I was doing about 17 MPH.

Wheel seems to be turning freely FWIW.

 

[ohzee]

Glad you are ok - I was curious also how that happened.

Id agree I would replace the hub I dont konw how you could ever trust it unless you were able to buy
a new outer ring and put your insides into it. GL.

 

[davidyerger]

unless you were able to buy a new outer ring and put your insides into it.

I asked the place I bought the bike from if I could get the shell, they said they only sell the whole wheel+motor together, so I guess I'll try Items Wanted here next. Thanks all!!

 

[neptronix]

What brand motor is that?

If it's one we use commonly, you could get a replacement outer case..

 

[etard]

Two words:

Stoke Monkey!!

I have a WE sensorless motor I may swap for a small fee if you like. It's on a working ebike ATM. What is the motor you have?

 

[DAND214]

That is a small hub or a large disc!

What is it?

Dan

 

[Rassy]

I agree with Etard. A number of forum members are building or thinking of building mid-drives using hub motors. I used a 9C which has a large diameter and considered maching the flanges off, but since it was my first attempt at a mid-drive I knew it would be worthless as a regular hub motor, so I didn't shave the flanges.

It appears to be a front hub, but the disk brake mount should be adaptable for a drive wheel of some sort.

 

[neptronix]

Yeah, if you won't use it as a stoke monkey, put it up for sale on the forums and someone else will...

Now start looking for a replacement motor here. Most of the motors you see being used on the forums that were purchased as aftermarket motors, have replacement parts available for when shit hits the fan like this.

 

[davidyerger]

What brand motor is that?

If it's one we use commonly, you could get a replacement outer case..

It's an eZee 350W model, probably circa 2009 build.

Here's hoping!

 

[davidyerger]

It appears to be a front hub

Yes, that's right.

 

[neptronix]

ah, the eZee.
May want to talk to ebikes.ca about that. They sell the eZee motors and might be able to get you the parts you need.

If not, that motor might actually be compatible with the front 350w MAC motor parts. cell_man might know about that.. but contact ebikes.ca first.

Worst case scenario, it's worth a bit of cash as it's an ideal mid-drive motor.

 

[davidyerger]

Two words:

Stoke Monkey!!

Hadn't considered that option! But I hear you, I had looked at bottom bracket motor designs before I bought the bike, and wish I could drop the motor into a lower gear every time I hit this particular hill I do about 8 MPH, pedalling hard... even with the planetary gears, it's none too efficient at that speed according to the simulator over at the most honorable ebikes.ca.

I have a WE sensorless motor I may swap for a small fee if you like. It's on a working ebike ATM. What is the motor you have?

I think my best resale option would be to keep this particular bike as stock as possible -- also my controller is sensored only. But thanks for the offer, once I see what's available I'll know what to do.

 

[dnmun]

look closely, if there are more cracks in the aluminum next to the part the fractured, you cannot get the strength needed to drill it out next to that spoke hole, but if it was clean, then try drilling at least 1/4", 6mm, away from the edge of the crack, for another spoke, chamfer the hole like the others and use a new longer spoke, then try to true it up again.

 

[John in CR]

Get a new identical motor, and then you'll have a spare stator with wiring and halls ready to go, so if you have an issue you can be up and running good as new with a simple swap in 15 minutes.

 

[etard]

If you are only running 350 watts, or even up to 750 watts, I would get the Cute motor. It's smaller AND cuter! :lol:

 

[davidyerger]

That is a small hub or a large disc!

What is it?

Dan

Spec sheet says 186 mm diameter on the motor, I guess that's on the small side compared to what most people here use?

 

[parabellum]

look closely, if there are more cracks in the aluminum next to the part the fractured, you cannot get the strength needed to drill it out next to that spoke hole, but if it was clean, then try drilling at least 1/4", 6mm, away from the edge of the crack, for another spoke, chamfer the hole like the others and use a new longer spoke, then try to true it up again.

+1
Will not look so clean, but functional, cheap and quick solution! I did it ones on motorcycle.

 

[davidyerger]

If you are only running 350 watts, or even up to 750 watts, I would get the Cute motor. It's smaller AND cuter! :lol:

Never saw those before, interesting. I'd probably go for it if I lived in the city--

Spec sheet that I could find (for the cute 250w version) indicated a maximum torque of about 15 Nm if I'm reading it right--compared to about 60 Nm with what I have now according to the simulator (but 32 Nm per specs online?)

I've had the controller cut out with overcurrent/ stalling error code with that (but not lately since I've cleaned up and tightened the battery contacts). So I guess I'd go higher power if I changed models.

 

[davidyerger]

look closely, if there are more cracks in the aluminum next to the part the fractured, you cannot get the strength needed to drill it out next to that spoke hole, but if it was clean, then try drilling at least 1/4", 6mm, away from the edge of the crack, for another spoke, chamfer the hole like the others and use a new longer spoke, then try to true it up again.

+1
Will not look so clean, but functional, cheap and quick solution! I did it ones on motorcycle.

Thanks for the input parabellum and dnmun, I'll have to look again at how much meat there is to play with. I don't remember seeing any other cracks.

Not getting any bites on items wanted so this might be the ticket for this month at least.

 

[davidyerger]

Get a new identical motor, and then you'll have a spare stator with wiring and halls ready to go, so if you have an issue you can be up and running good as new with a simple swap in 15 minutes.

Only one who sold the bare motor was Justin but it looks like he's out of them. Nycewheels has the whole wheel for $395. Not too bad considering a BMC V1 runs close to that.

 

[dnmun]

i think drilling on the shorter side would be best. so the tension of the spoke is towards the unfractured section, so the meat is on the inside, and then it would be a shorter spoke, so you could go deeper towards the hub, and away from the edge, but leave space for the spoke to turn when you run it through the hole. BOL

 

[davidyerger]

Just thought I'd update this with my results--

Had a friend MIG weld the flange piece back on and had the LBS true the wheel up - I've put about 20 miles on it, seems OK although the spokes seemed a bit loose after the ride.

Noticed the wheel was a little crooked in the fork, doesn't seem to want to go all the way in the dropout on the one side, so I'm taking it back to the LBS for a proper tuneup.

Thanks everyone!

 

[cell_man]

Speak to Justin at Ebikes.ca, he is very closely linked to Ezee and I wouldn't be surprised if he had an old non functioning ezee motor laying around that he could liberate a case from.