Hangar door motor mechanism repair?

[Mcstealth]

Good morning. What do you think could be the problem?:

The symptoms are the door will not open, obviously. The movement "up" is at a snails pace, the chains barely moving. The motor is spinning and sounds normal. The "down" movement seems normal, but I am assuming that is because of the weight of the door itself. No mechanical grinding or obvious bad noises of any kind. 

[Fly Boomer]

Looks like there is a gear box.  Can it be lubricated?

[N201MKTurbo]

There is probably a coupling between the motor and gearbox. I would check that it isn’t loose and slipping.

[FoxMike]

Brushes in the motor or low voltage into the motor.

[N201MKTurbo]

2 hours ago, FoxMike said:

Brushes in the motor or low voltage into the motor.

It looks like an AC induction motor. They don’t have brushes.

[N201MKTurbo]

The lift mechanism is coupled to the box on the side. It probably has the limit switches. I would look in there.

[1964-M20E]

You say the door is not moving then say movement is slow going up?????   pop the gear box cover off and see what is and isn't moving.  Then as above make sure everything, gear box, wheels, strap roller bearings (pillar blocks probably about 10 of them the length of the door) are well lubricated. 

 

[Mcstealth]

On 1/2/2024 at 5:52 AM, 1964-M20E said:

You say the door is not moving then say movement is slow going up?????   pop the gear box cover off and see what is and isn't moving.  Then as above make sure everything, gear box, wheels, strap roller bearings (pillar blocks probably about 10 of them the length of the door) are well lubricated. 

 

The motor is turning,  the door does "move" up, but I am talking millimeters here. 

We took off the capacitor cover. There are two capacitors and one is rusted through. Going to replace it as a matter of good practice. See if that helps. 

Edited January 4, 2024 by Mcstealth

[A64Pilot]

19 hours ago, Mcstealth said:

The motor is turning,  the door do "move" up, but I am talking millimeters here. 

We took off the capacitor cover. There are two capacitors and one is rusted through. Going to replace it as a matter of good practice. See if that helps. 

Shouldn’t but what the heck it’s rusted easy and inexpensive, due to the rust it ought to be replaced anyway.

Assuming the motor sounds normal, my bet is the drive is slipping, sheared key or something, it ought to be real easy to see.

I don’t think it’s the gears, if you broke a gear you can tell from the noise it makes, but it could be a gear slipping on its shaft

[Mooneymite]

Did you contact the door manufacturer?

[Mcstealth]

3 hours ago, Mooneymite said:

Did you contact the door manufacturer?

No longer in business. I did call a company named Schweise.  They were very helpful even though it is not one of their doors. 

[A64Pilot]

Well what is it?

[Mcstealth]

23 hours ago, A64Pilot said:

Well what is it?

They sent the motor off and break to be rebuilt. got the assembly back last Friday. Put it on and it did not work They did some more tracing and found out. The actual switch on and off switch was bad. It is an old style switch that is not found everywhere. But they should be back today to install it. the saga continues.

[A64Pilot]

So the motor wasn’t running?

Is your airplane trapped until then?

[Mcstealth]

46 minutes ago, A64Pilot said:

So the motor wasn’t running?

Is your airplane trapped until then?

Yes. Everything has been trapped for two full weeks now.

The motor did make noise when the tech's came out. Slightly perturbed but only just, because we probably could have caught the on/off switch problem if we were not so short sited and lacked thoughtfulness. Yucky capacitors, wonky motor, should have told us to keep poking. 

Edited January 13, 2024 by Mcstealth

[A64Pilot]

Just curious, is this your hangar as in you own it, or is this rented?

[Mcstealth]

On 1/14/2024 at 6:18 PM, A64Pilot said:

Just curious, is this your hangar as in you own it, or is this rented?

It is owned. 

Finally,  the little piss-ant threeway toggle switch, something  that looks like I could have found at Grainger, showed up. The damn hangar is opening again. 

Now the gears are grinding. Grrrrrrr