Dead motor

[aladds]

I've just pulled out my C5 after about a month of no use, and on powering it up I got a "CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK..." from the relay.

So I turned it off quickly, took the control box off, swapped out some diodes (I found two had blown open circuit, D4 and D1), popped the cap off the relay and cleaned its contacts, put it back together and tried again...

"CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK..." Says the relay.

So I take the motor off and wire it directly to the battery. I get a rather alarming crack, slight smoke from one terminal and a bright flash.

Oh dear.

So I pop the motor apart and take a look inside...

The motor seems fine, even the brushes look ok, but as soon as I put it all back together it becomes hard to turn (and it's harder one way than the other). I don't really want to try it again, because I'd prefer not to blow myself up (Lead acid batteries can give off Hydrogen, which is *extremely* flammable)

So, short of replacing the motor, which is indeed a viable option, and would probably be the easiest fix, what can I do about this?

I've yet to dismantle the gearbox, but with the motor housing removed it moves freely in both directions, so I doubt that's broken...

[C5 ENTHUSIAST + RESTORER]

Hi there did you check if the magnets on both sides if where still glued up tight  they sometimes come loose and catch the motor ..

[aladds]

They didn't seem loose, I'll pop it apart again to check though. There is a little chip in the resin on one end...

[aladds]

It's all sealed up tight! I'm putting some photos on my flickr right now. There's a little pitting, and the chip, but it mostly looks fine. It doesn't really make much sense...

[radiomarty]

Have you checked the bearings all turn freely ?

[aladds]

As I say, I've not had the gearbox off yet, but when the housing's off it turns both ways with no resistance, so it feels ok. I'll pop the gearbox off tomorrow to give it a proper inspection.

[radiomarty]

There is a bearing and cogs to check in the gearbox - but the one's I was wondering about are the two small ones on one end of the armature shaft and the slightly bigger one on the other end of the same shaft.

[aladds]

I've had it apart before, I stripped it, cleaned it up, put in a new big bearing and re-greased the whole thing about 4 or 5 months ago and it was fine then. I will pull it off and have a little look, though. It's possible something might have snapped...

The 'rear' end is fine though (the slightly bigger bearing), moves freely.

[aladds]

Just had the gearbox apart. It looks as good as it did when I re-greased it around easter. No visible wear, the bearings move freely, the grease is still plentiful(!)

I hooked the motor up to a small 9v battery and it turned slowly, yet connecting it to 12v on the C5 still results in manic clicking. I'm starting to wonder if there's another control box/pod fault causing this issue... I should really test the motor on a 12v battery, but I'm a little afraid to after what happened last time! :-S

[aladds]

Well here's an odd revelation... I just wired the motor up to a car 'boost start' box, and upon plugging it in, the motor runs! It draws about 10 Amps startup current, then about 4 steady. I didn't leave it running for very long. There is a slight noise from the motor, so I might try loosening it up and moving the housing around a little until I can get it perfectly centred.

But this is confusing me greatly, there's clearly a problem with the control box or the pod which I need to deal with... Unless it's the battery of course...

[alexbromo]

with... Unless it's the battery of course...

You might try to measure C5's battery voltage with motor connected. In some case of failure (i.e. plate shortcut), battery delivery 12V without load, but decrease dramatically with a load applied ...

The same failure last week on my Austin Mini ... 

Alex Bromo

[aladds]

That's exactly what's happened. I've tried to fix it by trickle charging, but to no avail. I'm going to try to get hold of an optimate-style battery recovering thing and see if that fixes it...

Fingers crossed!

[coverman]

Suggest rushing to Lidl and pick up their automatic charger for £12.99 on offer until Thursday.

[aladds]

There isn't a Lidl that close to me (closest is St. Neots, which is ~25 miles away). Does anyone know if there's anywhere else doing these cheaply? I might pop into ALDI tomorrow, as there's one in Cambridge... It's a long shot, but who knows :-)

I might just splash out on an Optimate. It's probably worth it in the long run...

[aladds]

Well...
I found an Oxford Maximiser on Amazon for just under £20 with postage, so I thought why on earth not. I'll let you know how I get on with it!

Link's below if you're interested.

Maximiser 360T - UK version