I was talking to fellow forum member Daniel Black a few weeks ago about how we now live in a throw away society, for Daniel fixing up his 650 is a way to challenge that norm. It used to be that every town had an all around fix it shop, TV repair shops, shoe repair, vacuum repair, and on and on.
That brings me to the point of this little story. The other day my wife was on the treadmill in another room and I heard the treadmill abruptly shut off followed by " Aww man! , my treadmill just stopped!"
I went to look at it and it would run slowly with no weight on it, but when you stepped on it , it would quit.
Well, I said, it looks like the motor is shot.
I went online to look at new treadmills and they're anywhere from $600 to easily over $1000.
So I then thought , let's see what repairing it might cost. I looked up typical repairs and you're looking at $200 for a new motor plus $100 for a new belt , plus labor.
Then I thought, I might be able to repair that motor, even though I've never been inside an electric motor before.
I pulled the motor and broke it down on my bench and this is what I found. The commutator was burned and scored, and the brushes were shot and everything inside that motor was filthy.
I chucked up the armature in my drill, so I could spin it, and I held 800 grit sand paper up against the commutator with a small block of wood.
I was able to clean up and remove all the scoring. Then I did a final clean up with electrical contact cleaner.
I then used my ohm meter to check the windings , following instructions I found on YouTube. ( I love YouTube!) Everything checked out, no shorts or open circuits.
I used a few drops of 3 in One oil in the bearings on both ends. I measured the brushes and ordered some generic replacement carbon brushes from eBay for the princely sum of $4. I couldn't find the exact size, the ones I ordered were 1 mm too thick, so when they arrived, I simply sanded down the thick side until they fit into the holders.
Got everything re assembled and here is my test, with me on the treadmill.
Success! Cost me Four Dollars! And a few hours of my time. And it was a fun little project to boot!
That brings me to the point of this little story. The other day my wife was on the treadmill in another room and I heard the treadmill abruptly shut off followed by " Aww man! , my treadmill just stopped!"
I went to look at it and it would run slowly with no weight on it, but when you stepped on it , it would quit.
Well, I said, it looks like the motor is shot.
I went online to look at new treadmills and they're anywhere from $600 to easily over $1000.
So I then thought , let's see what repairing it might cost. I looked up typical repairs and you're looking at $200 for a new motor plus $100 for a new belt , plus labor.
Then I thought, I might be able to repair that motor, even though I've never been inside an electric motor before.
I pulled the motor and broke it down on my bench and this is what I found. The commutator was burned and scored, and the brushes were shot and everything inside that motor was filthy.
I chucked up the armature in my drill, so I could spin it, and I held 800 grit sand paper up against the commutator with a small block of wood.
I was able to clean up and remove all the scoring. Then I did a final clean up with electrical contact cleaner.
I then used my ohm meter to check the windings , following instructions I found on YouTube. ( I love YouTube!) Everything checked out, no shorts or open circuits.
I used a few drops of 3 in One oil in the bearings on both ends. I measured the brushes and ordered some generic replacement carbon brushes from eBay for the princely sum of $4. I couldn't find the exact size, the ones I ordered were 1 mm too thick, so when they arrived, I simply sanded down the thick side until they fit into the holders.
Got everything re assembled and here is my test, with me on the treadmill.
Success! Cost me Four Dollars! And a few hours of my time. And it was a fun little project to boot!
