Motor bearing and pump life ( how long )

[slamdvw]

I am helping a friend with a car wash he is working on, and have noticed something strange. Very short pump seal and motor bearing life.

I would call, bearing failure at less than 600 hours, ... very short.

Baldor 5hp 3ph motors, emperor pumps.

The pumps, a few have milky oil already.

Is this normal?

Very new (almost two months) to the carwash maintenance field, though so far, it's been fun..

I have been reading this site, lots of information!

Thanks!

Robert

 

[MEP001]

Oil in the water is bad, as you can imagine. The usual culprit on these pumps is leaking plunger seals or cracked plungers. I have a "technique" to getting better life out of servicing them, but I'd probably replace them with something more reliable.

Motor life should be immensely longer than 600 hours. Baldor motors recommend greasing the bearings every 16,000 hours. If they've been greased regularly, more than likely the wrong grease was used. There's a plug on the bottom that must be removed or the grease will spill into the windings and it will burn up. Are they belt-drive or direct drive? if the former, the belts could be overtightened; if the latter, they may not be aligned properly.

 

[slamdvw]

belt drive pumps

Thanks for the quick reply!

I'm interested in the 'technique', couldn't hurt at this stage.

The pumps are belt drive.

There are a couple of the pump / motor trays that are quiet, and a few that will rattle the teeth out of your head. When I changed the dead bearings, they were disintegrated. Full of gritty material, and super sloppy.

When we got involved, I am going to guess it was lack of maintenance that is killing stuff. Water leaks, cluttered pump room, non-working equipment... the poor owners were about to throw in the towel and let it be someone else's problem.

This is where my friend and I come in. Short of heights, there isn't anything in that facility we can't handle! Plumbing, electrical, mechanical... walk in the park

 

[MEP001]

If you have this model Emperor pump

they might need some plungers replaced. I lubricate the new plunger bolt o-rings (Always use a bolt kit; never reuse them), assemble them into the plungers and fill them with ND-30WT oil, then pour it out before I install them on the pistons. While you're in there it's a good idea to replace the piston oil seals.

Change the crankcase oil and use 3 parts ND-30WT and 1 part transmission fluid - leave it in for a week in service and change it again. That will draw out the water.

I'm assuming they either left a water leak spraying on the motor or they weren't lubricated from the factory. I doubt you'll have that problem again.

 

[Randy]

In 32 years of being in the car wash business I’ve only had one pump bearing failure. If you’re having bearing problems I’d have to think you’ve got another problem somewhere or you need to change to another brand of pump. I’ve never been impressed with the Emperor pump. I’d replace them with a Arimitsu 313 or a 516 or Cat 310. We’ve never greased any of our motors and we’ve never had a bearing failure on a motor, we don’t think it’s necessary.

 

[wash4me]

In 32 years of being in the car wash business I’ve only had one pump bearing failure. If you’re having bearing problems I’d have to think you’ve got another problem somewhere or you need to change to another brand of pump. I’ve never been impressed with the Emperor pump. I’d replace them with a Arimitsu 313 or a 516 or Cat 310. We’ve never greased any of our motors and we’ve never had a bearing failure on a motor, we don’t think it’s necessary.

In the electric motor repair shop there are more motors there from tom nuch grease than not enough. It gets past the bearings into the windings etc. eventually.

 

[MEP001]

In the electric motor repair shop there are more motors there from tom nuch grease than not enough. It gets past the bearings into the windings etc. eventually.

I mentioned that above - they aren't meant to be greased on a regular interval, and the recommended 16,000 hour interval is usually longer than the motor lasts anyway.