Crystalyte motor bearings

[Parker]

(New member)

Hi

I've been reading this forum with great interest lately. It's very good.

I recently bought a ebike assembled from a Tidalforce style montague acquired when Waveforce was going out of buissiness. He attached a 406/409 crystalyte motor to it. I was very happy to find this bike already assembled.

The bike worked great for about a week and a half. It replaced my non-powered Giant half-way folding bike and freeing me from asking for rides at the end of the day.(to avoid huge hills on my 6 mile commute home)

Then I noticed a squeaking coming from the rear hub motor or cassette. I sprayed it with wd40 which stopped it for a couple days. I took it to the bike shop and they told me it was not the cassette, while eying the bike suspiciously. Has anyone experience motor bearing squeaking/failure? Is this something that is known to happen with these motors. Would they be possible and/or easy to replace?

Thanks

 

[knightmb]

(New member)

Hi

I've been reading this forum with great interest lately. It's very good.

I recently bought a ebike assembled from a Tidalforce style montague acquired when Waveforce was going out of buissiness. He attached a 406/409 crystalyte motor to it. I was very happy to find this bike already assembled.

The bike worked great for about a week and a half. It replaced my non-powered Giant half-way folding bike and freeing me from asking for rides at the end of the day.(to avoid huge hills on my 6 mile commute home)

Then I noticed a squeaking coming from the rear hub motor or cassette. I sprayed it with wd40 which stopped it for a couple days. I took it to the bike shop and they told me it was not the cassette, while eying the bike suspiciously. Has anyone experience motor bearing squeaking/failure? Is this something that is known to happen with these motors. Would they be possible and/or easy to replace?

Thanks

The bearings in the hub motors are usually sealed, can't say I've ever heard mine squeak. I would be careful with the WD40 though, it makes a great cleaner, but doesn't last long as a long term lube. Some squeak can come from the plastic sheath that keeps the wires from rubbing on the inside axial, sometimes that needs to be cleaned as dirt and such cause it to make noise against the case.

 

[D-Man]

How loud of a noise is it? I had a very faint noise like this once and I tightned the spokes and it seemed to go away. Might have been a vibration.

 

[Mathurin]

Ay, in my experience WD-40 flushes out grease and leaves a sorta film that evaporates with a few days to a few weeks. I don't think of it as a good lubricant, especially not for bearings. IMO, the stuff probably shouldn't be used anywhere on bikes except to clean out parts...


I've heard of one hub motor that had a noise described as a metallic squeaking, seems the bearings were not seated flat in the sideplates. Apparently, after adjusting them the noise disappeared and it got a slightly higher no load top speed.

 

[Parker]

The bearings in the hub motors are usually sealed, can't say I've ever heard mine squeak. I would be careful with the WD40 though, it makes a great cleaner, but doesn't last long as a long term lube. Some squeak can come from the plastic sheath that keeps the wires from rubbing on the inside axial, sometimes that needs to be cleaned as dirt and such cause it to make noise against the case.

That's very interesting idea on the plastic sheath. I'll check that out

I kind of knew wd might not be the best thing but I didn't want to know it just then. I don't really like useing the teflon lube(not that I had it) because I read it's environmentally bad.

 

[Lock]

Gawd I love the smell of WD40 in the morning...

But yeah, it ain't a lube. "WD" stands for "Water Displacer"... something like that, and *that* is it's intended purpose. Can't speak to your squeek problem though. G'Luck

Lock

 

[Parker]

How loud of a noise is it? I had a very faint noise like this once and I tightned the spokes and it seemed to go away. Might have been a vibration.

It's irritatingly loud. Well, not very loud but quite noticeable. I can't ignore it. I read about the spoke possibility on this forum and tightened up some then spent time getting my wheel back close it true. I need a proper spoke wrench.

 

[Parker]

I've heard of one hub motor that had a noise described as a metallic squeaking, seems the bearings were not seated flat in the sideplates. Apparently, after adjusting them the noise disappeared and it got a slightly higher no load top speed.

This sounds like a good possibility. I think maybe I should buy a hub puller or whatever you call the tool to remove the cassette. My bike shop doesn't want to touch it and I've called some electronic repair places and they don't want to mess with it either

 

[Mathurin]

DIY:

http://crystalyte-europe.com.linux19.hostbasket.com/openhub.htm

 

[29a]

I had a bearing failure but no squeaking sound from it.
The bearings are a standard bearing available from most pump repair shops the size is printed on the bearing rubber seals.
If its under warranty i would return the whole wheel rather than risk damage on dissasembly and loss of warrenty.

 

[Parker]

Update

I had a bearing failure but no squeaking sound from it.

Thank you for this. I became suspicious of the bike shops assessment that the squeaking could not be coming from anything other than the motor after reading this. I took it back to the bike shop and talked to someone else and convinced them to take it apart just to be sure where the problem was. The problem turned out to be in the Freehub. So I've been learning about the difference between freewheels and freehubs. I called the powerridestore and Earl was helpful and had an extra cover with a freehub on it. So I'm going to ship it down there and hopefully everything will work. This seems like the simplest route as the bike shop has no gear puller and if I got one I'd prob. never use it again. Thanks again Mathurin, 29a, D-man and Lock

Parker

 

[solarbbq2003]

its mentioned at start of this thread wavecrest ( written as waveforce) has gone out of business?? anyone any info on this?

 

[Parker]

That's not exactly right, sorry. They didn't go out of business they just got out of the ebike business in 05. I read sold patent rights or some sort of rights to a French company.

 

[Parker]

I found this.


http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/111206/bus_2006111229.shtml



"...sold the bicycle business to Matra, a European company with a background in racing. When the sale of the bicycle business was finished this August, WaveCrest also transferred the rights to more than 40 patents to Matra."