Hello! I was hoping to receive some guidance about one of my Radium motors that started squeaking recently.
I’m planning on taking the board apart this weekend to maybe apply some lubrication to the bearings, but after tonight I came to a stop fairly hard and the squeaking became way more pronounced. I initially thought my belt slipped during braking which I had never felt before since riding one of my older boards. Luckily I wasn’t far from home so I just walked it home a few blocks
Just hoping if there is any feedback or anything I should order ahead of the weekend which I’m fairly certain my walk of shame had me convince that the bearings or kaput.
One of the things that attracted me to these motors that the bearings were swappable?
Board: Lacroix Lonestar SuperSport (LSSS)
I’ve taken apart my old stock LSSS motor-cans so I’m assuming the process isn’t fairly different just some elbow grease
As soon as you said “squeak” bearing was my first thought too.
Here’s a video I just uploaded to show how to change bearings its pretty straight forward:
And link to replacement bearings:
I’m interested to know how you go. The only bearing I ever busted was a hybrid ceramic bearing that somehow got mixed in with the normal steel ones from the bearing supplier.
So if you find a seized bearing and pry the cover off, and notice that it has black balls that would explain the short lifespan, assuming it is a bearing failure.
Just curious, and ive asked this question to some people with no real clear answer, but why run double stacked bearings on the front? One of the basic design rules i learned is never run 3 points of contact on an axle to avoid one being out of alignment.
Best explanation i got is that these motors generally are all purpose and this helps with sideways forces.
Stacking bearings is not the best way of doing it ideally you’d go a bigger size bearing but in this case space is limited and the double stack performs really well. Patrick is actually the first person to buy the replacement bearings that we’ve had sitting on the shelf for over a year now.
In terms of size alone I’ve put the biggest bearings possible in these motors and they are way bigger than most other motors. Its honestly crazy how small the balls are in motors like maytech and turnigy they are like grains of sand!
Thanks a lot! Appreciate the expedite! Bearings just came in today, although I’m pretty spent trying to get the motor can off without taking the enclosure apart and disconnecting the motors entirely from the board.
Taking a break and will try again later when feeling returns to my hands before I disassemble the board
I managed to get the motor can off but not without difficulty. The two inner bearings including the black one failed and the white adhesive stuff appear to be worn down maybe from heat over time?
Just sharing my observations before I swap out the bearings. I cleaned out the debris and buildup with Isopropyl and Q-Tips so far.
I think the loose balls from the bearings was what was giving me such a hard time getting the motor can off.
I tried revisiting this this weekend sliding the new bearing over the shaft and there is no give. Tried using one of the good old ones to avoid damaging the new bearing using decent force but still same thing.
Probably find some lubrication and maybe apply some heat but seems excessive to replace bearings.
May explain why there so much resistance sliding the motor CAN off which was no way as easily as you demonstrated in the video you shared
Thanks maybe I’ll take my other Radium motor off my board and take the O-Ring to Ace Hardware or something to find a match
Edit: I’m dumb that’s my bearing i looked at both my old motors and they’re the same so i guess they don’t have an o-ring oddly between the bearing and the c-clip
