Plastimo 16274 engine bay blower. Has anyone stripped one down?

[RichardS]

One of my Plastimo 16274 engine compartment blowers has stopped working. I've brought it home as I'm fairly certain that it will be the brushes that need replacing. This is the blower: http://www.plastimo.com/en/ventilateur-de-cale-classique-9815.html

I've removed the outer cowling and the inner flange screws (all cross-head self tappers) but I can't seem to pull the motor assembly out from its plastic case as the cable / grommet seem to stop it coming free.

I'm wondering if the dished plate at the commutator end of the motor is supposed to be prised out but I can't see any notches for getting a screwdriver in.

Has anyone else tried dismantling one of these? At £120 a pop I'd like to fix it if I can.

Many thanks

Richard

 

[RichardS]

OK - managed to get it apart by forcing the cable grommet and cable into the body sufficiently far enough to pull out the motor. I can now see that the dished end-cap is just part of the plastic casting and is not removeable.

Just in case it helps anyone, the motor inside the Plastimo housing is a FASCO 2807-506-006 12V 5A. Now to see if I can get it to bits and then get the parts!

Richard

 

[Heckler]

p

OK - managed to get it apart by forcing the cable grommet and cable into the body sufficiently far enough to pull out the motor. I can now see that the dished end-cap is just part of the plastic casting and is not removeable.

Just in case it helps anyone, the motor inside the Plastimo housing is a FASCO 2807-506-006 12V 5A. Now to see if I can get it to bits and then get the parts!

Richard

Richard
just done mine, found out the same, got the motor out, there was two nuts with through bolts. Undo the nuts and the motor splits in two. The brushes jam behind the cone on the end of the commutator. fiddle and it comes apart. My prob was serious noisy and the motor was binding. I tried greasing the bushes, it was still jamming. i then realised that the plastic cones each end were jamming on the case. There are loads of shims on each end of the rotor. I took some off one end and put them on the other. This meant that when the motor was loading it was shifting the rotor to one end, the plastic cone was then contacting the case instead of the shim bearing on the top hat bart of the bearing bush. I think the plastic cones are a crude spark arrestor type of thing, running close to the case, when the bush bearing surface wears they are then too close to the case and rub. By moving the shims the rotor bears on the bushes again. Take care in case of petrol engines in case I am right and by not getting the cone position right you ruin the spark arresting protection. In my diesel engine situation of course it is not relevant.
S

 

[RichardS]

Richard
just done mine, found out the same, got the motor out, there was two nuts with through bolts. Undo the nuts and the motor splits in two. The brushes jam behind the cone on the end of the commutator. fiddle and it comes apart. My prob was serious noisy and the motor was binding. I tried greasing the bushes, it was still jamming. i then realised that the plastic cones each end were jamming on the case. There are loads of shims on each end of the rotor. I took some off one end and put them on the other. This meant that when the motor was loading it was shifting the rotor to one end, the plastic cone was then contacting the case instead of the shim bearing on the top hat bart of the bearing bush. I think the plastic cones are a crude spark arrestor type of thing, running close to the case, when the bush bearing surface wears they are then too close to the case and rub. By moving the shims the rotor bears on the bushes again. Take care in case of petrol engines in case I am right and by not getting the cone position right you ruin the spark arresting protection. In my diesel engine situation of course it is not relevant.
S

Thanks Stu. That's a real concidence. Got mine apart and those cone things you mention are the work of the devil! As you say, dragging the cone past the brushes is a ridiculous design. I have a couple of shims each end of the shaft outside of the cones which seem to keep the cones off the end plates but I can believe that the clearance is very limited and if any end float develops then the cone will scrape. If I have that problem at some I think I will just remove the cone and replace with another shim. I might do that anyway at the commutator end if getting it back together proves difficult.

The result of the strip down is that I have one brush which has completely disappeared into carbon powder and one brush which is a paper-thin sliver. The whole motor was full off carbon powder. I can't find a supplier of the brushes so I've sent the dimensions to a UK company who say they can machine to size. The brush size in mm as measured from the sliver seems very odd ...... but, as this is a USA motor, I wonder whether the sizes will be imperial as they would then be 1/4 in. square x 1/2 in. long.

Anyway, I've asked the brush company for their advice. The brushes are soldered in and the end plate with the brush carrier is held by cables to the motor body so the biggest problem is going to be soldering the new brushes in with very limited access. I get the impression that these brushes are not intended to be replaceable but I'll cross that bridge if and when I get to it. :encouragement:

Richard

 

[RichardS]

Just to update this in case anyone else stumbles across it ..... I searched the internet but could not find any carbon brushes of the right size with the cable exiting the side of the brush. The company I sent the sliver of brush to said that they could make the brushes for me but these would cost over £30 a pair and I wanted two pairs ready for when the second blower fails. This is a lot more than I was hoping for.

I then phoned Comlec http://www.comlec.co.uk/ The guy there was very helpful and said he would so some research. He came back the next day to say that he could not get hold of the brushes for this FASCO motor from his suppliers but what I needed was a SW126 set and that the only source he could find in the UK was at JCR Supplies http://www.jcrsupplies.co.uk/ so I phoned then and asked whether they had an SW126 brush set and would that fit the FASCO motor. The guy there had never heard of FASCO but gave me the spec for the SW126 - 6.25mm x 6.35mm x 12mm side entry connector, no spring. This sounds exactly right so I've ordered 2 pairs at £3.60 per pair.

Soldering them in once they arrive will be the next challenge but even if it goes horribly wrong I've only wasted £7.20! :encouragement:

Richard

 

[pvb]

Just to update this in case anyone else stumbles across it ..... I searched the internet but could not find any carbon brushes of the right size with the cable exiting the side of the brush. The company I sent the sliver of brush to said that they could make the brushes for me but these would cost over £30 a pair and I wanted two pairs ready for when the second blower fails. This is a lot more than I was hoping for.

I then phoned Comlec http://www.comlec.co.uk/ The guy there was very helpful and said he would so some research. He came back the next day to say that he could not get hold of the brushes for this FASCO motor from his suppliers but what I needed was a SW126 set and that the only source he could find in the UK was at JCR Supplies http://www.jcrsupplies.co.uk/ so I phoned then and asked whether they had an SW126 brush set and would that fit the FASCO motor. The guy there had never heard of FASCO but gave me the spec for the SW126 - 6.25mm x 6.35mm x 12mm side entry connector, no spring. This sounds exactly right so I've ordered 2 pairs at £3.60 per pair.

Soldering them in once they arrive will be the next challenge but even if it goes horribly wrong I've only wasted £7.20! :encouragement:

This is truly in the spirit of PBO!