Goldenmotor hub won't turn please help

[mrhat24]

Hi there, does anybody know why my rear wheel goldenmotor won't turn, it can turn but extremely hard to pedal as if you are pedaling with breaks on. I'm not using it with a battery right now because I have not received it, and my regular back wheel went flat so I figure I'll just use the new goldenmotor wheel to replace it. When I initially installed this hub it also had this problem. Then after I flipped up the bike and messed around with it, it went away and it rides smoothly like a normal bike. Then just this morning I was riding it and hit a bump and boom the problem returned. When I flipped the bike upside down and messed with the derailer and stuff the friction still persist. Do yall think I have bad bald bearings inside the motor? This is a freaking brand new hub & I haven't even connected a battery to it yet! I'm extremely tired of dealing with chinese vendors now. ARRRRGHGHH This whole ebike thing is a fricking nightmare. I'm down $950. With no battery yet & I can't even ride my bike as a normal bike, & a busted hub. Life is fricking great.

I think there is a bald bearing out of place or something because I can hear something that is loose in there when i try to turn the wheel with my hand.

 

[dogman dan]

Sounds like cogging, but the only time my motor cogged that bad was when It had a blown controller hooked up to it. Does it roll better backwards? On my brushed motor, It coggs like mad if you roll the wheel the wrong way. Its easier to put a frontie on the wrong way.

 

[Johnbear]

If any of the 3 phase wires short, the yellow blue and green wires from the motor, the motor will be very hard to turn, like you describe.

 

[Drunkskunk]

is it easier to turn very slowly? if there is a short, then it will be a little easier to turn by hand realy slowly, and you should feel some "bumps" as it passes over each magnet. it would be much harder to turn faster.

If it is a mechanical problem like bad bearings or siezed brakes, then it will be as hard or harder to turn very slow.

 

[mrhat24]

Its really hard for it to turn both ways & I do feel those bumps as it goes through each magnet as the above mentioned. I still don't understand why its doing this because I have yet to hook it up to the battery because I'm still waiting for my battery. I think the subject line is a little misleading as it is possible for it to turn but extremely hard to turn. Also, as I desperately try to pedal it feels like its shaking & the motor makes a sound like its stuck or something.

 

[Drunkskunk]

do you have it hooked up to the controller? try unhooking it.

If the motor was stuck because of something internal, it would be making a metalic grinding, crunching noise. There is only one moving part in these motors, so very little can go wrong inside.

 

[mrhat24]

When I initially had the hub installed. There was a grinding sound as it was also hard to turn. Then for whatever reason after I flipped up the bike and just messed around with it like adjusting the derailer and peddling it back in forth while it was upside down I managed to make smooth. Also, I have no controler or any kind of wire connected to the wheel so there can't be any chance of electrical failure. So I'm thinking its some kind of bearing inside the wheel?

 

[John in CR]

When I initially had the hub installed. There was a grinding sound as it was also hard to turn. Then for whatever reason after I flipped up the bike and just messed around with it like adjusting the derailer and peddling it back in forth while it was upside down I managed to make smooth. Also, I have no controler or any kind of wire connected to the wheel so there can't be any chance of electrical failure. So I'm thinking its some kind of bearing inside the wheel?

MrHat,

As mentioned before, it is most likely a short in your motor wires. It doesn't need to be connected to anything and doesn't matter if it's brushed or brushless for the short to exist. If the ends of those motor wires are touching each other you have instant electrical brakes, and would exhibit your exact symptoms. Just separate them and put a little electrical tape so they can't touch while you're riding and throw you off, and you'll probably be good to go. You might think about getting some resistance wire and experimenting with "plug brakes" while it's so easy to do so. Those who use them say it's the cats meow, and is definitely an upcoming mod for my bike.

John

 

[Link]

Hmm, how hard to turn is "hard"?

I had a similar problem with my Golden. There was a sort of grinding/scraping sound after I installed it, and it was much harder to turn than a normal wheel, but not hard to enough to really cause problems. I can't pedal it past 15mph it has so much drag, but it's got no problem getting up to around 27mph on 48V.

And does the amount of force required to turn it vary with how fast you turn it? A short in the wires doesn't do much if you turn it slowly, but starts to become very hard to turn when you spin it fast.

If it is a short and it's just some sliced wires outside the hub, you can just splice in some new ones. If it's inside, you may have to do what I did (I recommend doing that with teflon 14ga if you don't plan on running high amps). If you're a very unfortunate soul and something happened to the actual coils, then you'll either have to rewind it, send it to someone else to rewind it, or get a new one. That's pretty unusual, though.

 

[mrhat24]

Thank you all for these inputs. Even though my wires weren't connected to the controller or to eacher other I still had them taped to my metal bicycle frame. So I think that was the cause of that problem. I managed to just tape the end of those wires so that it won't touch the frame and each other and the internal friction is gone now.
again thanks a lot