Gripper Motor said oh hello!

[brotherhay]

I think that my gripper motor has gone to junk. It seems like the motor still wants to operate though. It just moves really slow. Everything is lubed nicely. Since I have first had this machine, the gripper motor always made a grinding sound when in operation. I suspect it was on its way out.
I can most likely find one used, but before that since its out of operation and will not fix itself, has anyone ever taken these apart?

I have read of people opening them and cleaning them, and Im down for that if it could possibly help. I am thinking it might be salvageable since it wants to still function.

Might have to make a tutorial of sorts if this is feasible. Someone out there has to have some experience with this in the past.

 

[KenLayton]

Re: Gripper Motor said bye bye

Rowe or Rockola?

Rowe uses an open frame motor. Rockola uses a DC gearmotor.

Rockola jukes tend to wear out the motor brushes in those motors so try a new pair of motor brushes in it first. Sometimes the motor armature itself short circuits causing tripped breakers. If that happens you need a new motor for sure.

 

[brotherhay]

Re: Gripper Motor said bye bye

Its an AMI. Hopefully its salvageable. Looks like a replacement is $125 or so. There is a place in the EU somewheres that rebuilds these.
Ill dig into it, like I said, its only partially working as it is, so if something is majorly wrong, a replacement is in order.

I will check brushes and commutator, probably need a cleaning for sure. Ill hit it with air first, and if its still dirty, on to carb cleaner or the like.

 

[brotherhay]

Well, the beauty of most all old things I have worked on is that pretty much all the parts are huge, and tough.

I pulled this motor off, and opened it up, and it was filthy inside. All kinds of dust had mixed with oil/grease and was everywhere. If you wiped it it just smeared all over. Well, I got it all cleaned out of the housing. And started to work on the winding. The commutator was just packed with that grime. Took a stanley blade and sliced through each gap there, then wiped it good.
The Brushes were still fine, put them back in with a little fight.
Put it all back together, tightened it down, and it works.

How awesome. I talked to two very well respected repair guys about fixing these. They said no one does it, and get looking for another one. Granted mine wasnt broken, just needed a good cleaned. My guess is anything even 20 years + needs this same work.