Brad's Former Scooter

[Weldangrind]

Members may remember my report about Brad's Gio electric scooter for last year: Brad's New Scoot

There have been some changes. Our Pastor (Jim) bought a new 49cc Saga scooter (Jim's Saga Scooter), so he sold his electric scooter to Brad, since it's considerably more powerful than Brad's Gio. Brad sold his Gio to a buddy, but when they rolled it out of the shed this Spring, it wouldn't roll. 8O

I picked up Brad's scooter and brought it home for repair. Here's a shot of the rear wheel before I removed it. Note the hub motor. For reference, the band brake is on the left side and the bicycle chain drive is on the right.



This is the bicycle chain drive side with the cover removed to expose the armature:



The armature was rusted to the hub. After considerable pounding with a ball pein hammer and a brass drift, this is how much progess I made:



Eventually, I managed to get the stubborn armature out:



I sanded the edge of the armature and the inside of the hub with 120 grit sandpaper, and then wiped it down with a little WD-40:



After I got the hub motor back together, I noticed that two wires were damaged, and some of the insulation was missing. It also looks like the rear wheel assembly was dropped in manufacturing, because the axle was folded over where the wires exit the hollow axle:



I trimmed the axle with my Dremel so I could access more of the wire for repair, and so the damaged axle area wouldn't contact the wires:



I soldered an extension onto the smaller wire and covered it with heat shrink tubing. I applied a few drops of Krazy Glue to the remaining exposed wire, because it wasn't missing any strands. I put two layers of heat shrink over the entire bundle and then wrapped the whole deal in black tape. I made sure that the wire radius was smooth upon installing the rear wheel:



Success! Son of Weldangrind took it for a late night spin tonight, and he says it works great. I'll deliver it to Brad in the morning, and he can deliver it to the new owner.

BTW, Brad says that he can climb hills much better with his new scooter; he's very happy.