ss bay electric motor noise

[HCW]

One of our self serve bay's motor is making a racket noise, sounds like a crank bearing noise on a car but it is still working ok. Any ideas what it may be? Bearing? Brushes?

 

[mjwalsh]

HCW,

I wonder if a stethoscope would help? It could eliminate some guesswork. I have heard of mechanics in our area using a stethoscope to pinpoint exactly where a noise is coming from.

mike walsh www.kingkoin.com

 

[MEP001]

Your bay motors are brushless. It's probably a bearing unless it's an intermittent or rattling noise, in which case it may be a loose pulley.

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

I could easily be wrong, but your description sounds to me like a pump problem, not a motor. Specifically I keyed in on "crank bearing noise"... if it is the crankshaft end of the pump you'll be replacing the pump shortly; I'd doublecheck the source of the noise.

 

[washnvac]

Take the belt off. Then run motor. That will tell which part is singing to you.

 

[HCW]

Washnvac
Excellent idea, soon as I get back to wash I'll try it. Sometimes we miss the simplest things.

 

[Randy]

My wild guess would have to be the pump is going bad.

 

[mac]

Either way, the bearings are fairly easy to replace. The motor data plate even lists the bearings for the front and rear ones.

 

[Greg Pack]

drifting off topic, I read an article not long ago that claimed that a poor ground on a three phase motors would cause premature failure of the bearings. Anyone ever heard that?

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I have a 19 year old, very busy wash. The motor on one bay has sounded like crap for several years now. It sounds like bearing noise and is noticeably louder than all the others. I'm always thinking it will "give up the ghost" one of these days, but it just keeps running. I always have a spare motor on hand, but as a rule it just collects dust. I'm not saying you should just leave it alone, just relaying my experience.

 

[MEP001]

I've also had one making bearing noise for years - a hose burst and sprayed the pump and motor all day before I found it. I went so far as to get a second spare motor to swap it out and have the bearings replaced but it hasn't gotten any louder.

 

[pgrzes]

I replaced a few bearings on a Coleman pump stand that was sitting for a while. Something I noticed, The motor end plates had grease zerks on them, but the bearings had no groove in them????? Why?? Anyway I have a spare motor, it was easier to pull the armature out and replace with the spare armature, press on the new bearings and move to the next one. If you have access to a press they are very easy to do. I did 5 of the 7 motors on the stand, inexpensive and much quieter now.