Mooney electric motors life expectancy

[amillet]

Replaced the electric fuel boost pump today. The original motor installed in 1996 suddenly began sounding sick; slow and irregular pulsing.  Electric flap motor died 18 months ago.  Is 20 +/- years the expected useful life of these small electric motors?

[carusoam]

That would be tough to put a finger on...

Lets invite @M20Doc to the conversation... (small electric motor life, flaps, and fuel pumps)

Best regards,

-a-

[N201MKTurbo]

The motors should last forever. The bearings can dry up and cause problems. Most of the commutators and brushes are so over built they should last thousands of hours. 
 

If the bearings go south the motor has to work harder and could burn out the armature.

[carusoam]

Somewhere along the way... we calculated the total number of hours the flap motors and gear motors  actually run...

Its minuscule compared to trying to wear one out in a year...

Best regards,

-a-

[Guest]

There seems to be no easy answer, some motors last amazing long lives, other relatively short ones.  Just like airplane engines I suppose.

Clarence

[A64Pilot]

Those Weldon pumps only last about 300 hours in operation before the brushes wear out. They were reportedly working on a brushless motor but by the time of my retirement they hadn’t come out. (three years ago) I suspect they may never go brushless, but if they did that would pretty much eliminate motor wear as the life limit and make it pump wear, which seems to be minimal.

So how many years does it take to accumulate 300 hours at maybe 10 min per flight?

The pumps used on an S2R-H80 appear to be almost identical.

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2019/09/loss-of-engine-power-total-thrush-s2r.html

 

Oh, and the pump in that accident was a red herring, it had nothing to do with the accident.

Edited March 7, 2021 by A64Pilot

[Tim Jodice]

Is 20 years that bad? That seems like a reasonable life for a electric pump.

 

[LANCECASPER]

16 hours ago, amillet said:

Replaced the electric fuel boost pump today. The original motor installed in 1996 suddenly began sounding sick; slow and irregular pulsing.  Electric flap motor died 18 months ago.  Is 20 +/- years the expected useful life of these small electric motors?

 

Not necessarily. The Mooney still senses that there's some money remaining in your wallet and wants to help relieve you of it.

[Mooney217RN]

These Weldon pumps can and do go bad.  Usually it's the seals that go, but I had one in my E Model fail outright.  That said, they do last a long time.  They have weep valves (see picture) that tell you when the seals are going.  If there is any sign of fuel coming out of that valve, it's time to replace the pump.