pinging noise

[Draggin]

My name is Andre I'm from  Ontario Canada.  I ebayed my golden motor kit in Feb. and appart from a few loose connections(which I soldered) have had no problems.  I'm just going to roll over the 1000km mark.  I am exactly 10 miles from work 16.5km. I have done the trip in 27:08@34.2km/hr!  I have been having this horrible chirping sound for the last 50km and was wondering if some one might enlighten me as to the fix.  The distributor has never heard of this problem. 

[myelectricbike]

The power and sensor leads are held in place with nylon cable ties which can come loose or become debri inside the hub. A magnet could come loose or be misaligned or scraping a high spot. All you can do is have it opened by a qualified technician or DIY. Look for loose stuff and/or debri. Some startup noises can be common due to torque ripple and alloy stator spokes but rare for steel stator spokes. Bearings are self lubicated type but could also be the problem. Again a good machine shop can replace a bearing and maybe tell you first if it is bad.

[dray]

its a SPOKE

[Draggin]

   Dray It sounds like a spoke.  My racer makes a simmilar noise when I push off, but stops very shortly after.  This noise is ten times louder.  If you lift the wheel by the axle and spin it by hand with the battery unplugged the shock wave goes through your hand.  However this may have merrit and I will get the bike shop to check.  I will keep you posted 

[Draggin]

myelectricbike  I think you may be right.  I took it apart the first day I had it and found a welding spatter had jammed the rotor.  it looked as though the bead may have caused some delamination of the stator.  It worked ok for 900km though.  I have read on other sights about the hall sensors.  They say they cost a buck.  It would be nice to have a number or specks on them so that I might try and replace it.  I don't think that I would try and return this unit the postage is more than the cost of a new one.  When I had it apart I noticed that the end covers have very unusual harmonics. spin it and it rings long after the rotation stops.  its like listening to a balloon.  there should be no noise but there is.  Oh my gosh the water is spinning the wrong way down the drain!       

[myelectricbike]

I think covers are definitely forged alloy so they can disapate heat but also not crack under pressure of the bearings which are probably heated prior to being press fit. Those covers are quit a piece of engineering for such a comparatively inexpensive hub motor beleive it or not. I'm sure the ringing of the covers which is similar to a bell when they pop loose from the rotor or are thumped lightly with the finger is due to the high tension they are under from being forged and from the press fit of the bearings. Torque ripple could also be causing loose stator leaves, etc. to vibrate at audiable frequencies.

One solution that worked for me after a few tie straps came loose was to keep everything inside the hub in place by saturating it with layers of superglue. If you do this make sure you do not accidently glue the rotor to the stator. After some glue in many suspect places all noises became disappeared. My ride is now so quite that early this morning I rode past 2 dogs off the leash before they had time to react. I can also listen to a radio now whereas on my Honda 160 I could not.

[Draggin]

Yeeeeessssss.  I finally got her fixed with the help of one of the machinists at work.  I stripped her down and checked for continuity to the hall sensors, ok. Then I supperglued the laminations in the stator and sanded smooth.  With help I installed new bearings as one of them had spun.  What we found was that the axel, when pushed into the hub, had been mushed a bit.  I thought that the axel should be centered as seen at the bushings, and had hammered it back to center.  At that point in the conversation, my buddy pointed out that the words bearing and hammer should not be used together.  The pinging noise was the result of driving the ball into the race of the bearing.  The end covers amplified the noise.  I rode into work this mornig and rolled over 1000 km.  Golden Motors rock!     

[myelectricbike]

LOL... Hammer ...oil can and bearings... Yeah, one of the first things I noticed was how good the machine work actually was and the tight fit of the bearing races in the covers in addition to the lip around the cover edge that mates and locks the cover to the rotor. When I did the 48 volt controller thing and overheated the motor one of the cover screw heads poped so In addition to the Teflon coverd silver power leads I replace the screws with stainless. Also you can use hex cap screws but I stayed with the 4mm hex heads after a local supplier finally found the box. Being both inexpensive and well made has got me now thinking about all kinds of builds and mods. Glad you were able to find and fix the problem.

[Draggin]

     Now. myelectricbike, you are joking when you say quality of the machining, aren't you?   I'm kinda glad that the quality is what it is because I would have felt guilty breaking it apart if it was $600.  I would still have done it I just would have felt bad.  The stainless capscrews is a good idea.  After two re and re's mine are neither English nore metric.  So after I got all those little tiny wires soldered and shrink wrapped I get this great idea to wash my bike.  What an idiot!  I should have wiped the speed controller with a damp cloth.  Instead I used the bucket and brush and hose.  It went about a foot and quit.  I really didn't want to remove the battery and speed control.  When I pulled the end cover off about half a cup of water came out.  So there I am at 12:30 with the blow drier stuck in the speed controller and I leave for work at 5:30.  My speed controller now looks like a gob of silicone with wires sticking out. Draggin     

[myelectricbike]

Well of course when I say quality of the machining I have price in the back of my head. Considering the price I'm very happy with the machining and materials. Besides I'm getting use to the idea of buying a pipe wrench or cutter at the local flea market for $7 instead of paying Home Depot $109 for all the fancy machining to do what? ...reveal defects like small cracks in the handle? Hey if the handle of the wrench from HD breaks I need a $559 MIG or TIG welder to glue it back on but if the one from the flea market breaks all I need is my trusty old $99 Lincoln.

Anyway about the controller. Sounds like it still works and your ebike could survide 50m like your watch. If its still working after being on while full of water then that's reeally good news. I would expect it to be permanently damaged. If it was you'd have a good excuse to get the new regenerative controller.

The regen's whole thing, BTW, is efficiency so top powered speed is down to the RPM of max motor efficiency (15-17 versus 19-20) and any extra energy from peddling, breaking or going down hill goes back into the batteries instead of into more speed. You don't get there as fast but you don't have to stay there as long by around 30%.

[Draggin]

myelectricbike, are you sure you don,t know me?  I have the $99 lincoln and I just bought the $144 mig from princess auto.  The welder and the expansion piece for my minivan exhaust was less than the price of the parts at the garage.  You are probably right about my speed controller.  You've been right about just about everything else.   I think that I have gone through a change in life.  At one time I would have had to spend thousands to get my bike to go a little faster or a little further.  Now I just want the damned thing to work reliably.  Golden has built this thing just about right.  It is a hair bigger 500W max. and a hair faster, 32km/hr than what is allowed here in Ontario under the new pilot project.....but don't tell anybody especially the police.  I think I would do well to buy two more kits from Smart Bikes Canada than to buy a Crystalight or Bonex. for about the same cash.  Do you like my spelling mistakes I sense some brand loyalty here.  From what I read on the Cryatalight site the problems that I have encountered are common as they talk about similar ones.  There is allot of BS in there too.  And thanks for the tip on the super glue It really quietens down the startup growl.  I even put a fillet arount the base of the stator and hub spider as it was pressed on with a key.  I wiouldn't remove the stator assembly again without a couple of 6202RS bearings in my hand.     

[myelectricbike]

Oh Canada, oh Canada as the tune goes...  My underlying impression of Canadians comes from the Red Green Show. Like me, "Duck Tape" should be their middle name.

A $144 MIG or TIG welder sounds pretty interesting. Duralum and Chromalloy are my favorite metallic alloys and if I can't do it with them there is always ABS, PVC and PETE.

Seriously though the Golden is very nice for anyone who prefers the reliability akin to an AK-47 versus an M-16 you simply can not count on when it gets wet.

 

[Draggin]

  Don't forget about Hockey we really love hockey.  Why even the girls play.  To bad there not allowed to sing that song in schools anymore.  It has kind of a catchey tune.  Here is another problem I ran into when my ebike was new.  I couldn't get the charger to peak.  I had charged the battery  a few times but no green light.  I knew it was finished because the battery was bubbling.  The charger got so hot I thought it was going to burn.  I put it out in the garage and it worked great.  I pulled the cover off the charger but found no problem.  I thought it might be a loose connection in the battery box.  The conections were ok but I noticed that the fusable link was not welded to the end cover.  I thought that has to be it.  The fuse worked in the garage because it was cold and the link became short making a contact.  In the basement the link became loose and messed with the delta voltage circuit.  I happened to have a spare 20A fuse in my box of junk and it has worked great ever since.  If anybody else is getting a really hot charger try changing the fuse.   

[Draggin]

     So I had one day worth of ridding and went for a ride with my neighbour to see his garden.  About half a mile down a cow path.  The bumps had loosened the axle nuts and the axle spun.  There is so much torque in the motor that the slot in the fork in the actually opened up. I pulled the fork off and welded (brazed) a washer on the side of the fork to stiffen it up then cut the slot again.  I was surprised that it had enough power to bend the slot in the fork.  The doner bike is a twenty year old Raliegh mountain bike.  It is a steel frame.  Go figgure aye.   

[myelectricbike]

There is a picture somewhere on the Internet I saw about six months ago of damage to a front fork from raising the voltage from 36 to 48 with a 36 volt controller. Apparently the power leads shorted and the Counter EMF turned the motor into a generator/break. Not only did it complete open the hangers but before doing that bent the forks like pretzles. Luck he wasn't riding in trafic. It also tore the motor up - bent the axle I think so be careful when doing mods - they can be expensive as well as dangerous.

BTW - what happend to the wiring?