Hudy tire truer help

[Reek455]

I was trueing some tires last night and my Hudy truer started making a kind of growling sound and started pulling more amps than usual. At that point I cleaned all the tire residue off the unit, removed the belts and pulleys and cleaned everything up. I didn't find anything out of the ordinary, the drum shaft spun freely as did the shaft the tire/wheel mounts on. I reassembled and lubed everything. The unit appeared to operate normally so started trueing a tire and left the shop for a bit. When I returned the scraping noise was back even louder and the unit was drawing over 3.0 amps whereas it normally pulls around 1.5 amps unloaded. I shut it off and now the motor will not start without help and continues the excessive draw. Any ideas or suggestions would be extremely helpful at this point.

Thanks in advance,
Rico

[Pappy]

Sounds like you might need a new motor. How old is it ? I'm getting ready to put my third motor on mine. My second motor was a cheap motor that I bought on Ebay which worked fine for a long time. I'm going back to a Hudy motor.

[chrisguyw]

Hi Rico, Assuming you have cleaned and lubricated everything (including the motor shaft bushings),....you may want to check the positioning of the pulleys.......

If you are truing smallish dia. tyres, it is possible for the drive belt pulleys to come into contact with each other.....this does make a rather horrible noise !!.....undo the set screws a reposition the pulleys a touch.

This above is certainly a very possible cause of the grinding...it happens a lot when grinding to a small dia., but, it does not account for the motor needing help to spin.....again, check to see that the motor bushings are lubricated, and failing that it could be a broken/worn out brush, or a thrown winding. (Considering that the arms in these motors do not spin all that fast, a thrown wind is highly unlikely......unless you race your tire truer .

Let us know what you find

Cheers
Chris Walker

PS If in fact you do need a new motor, look online or at your local RC shop and find a 540 sized RC motor with removable/ replaceable brushes.....these are of better quality, are rebuildable, have more torque, and are generally less expensive that the "sealed" 540's
I have done this to many truers both at the shop and for a few club members, as well as for a couple of the regulars on this forum.

[Austin]

I had to replace the motor on mine a while back

[Fathead59]

Just a question , wouldn't the motor be one of the biggest consumables on any of the tire truer's on the market , besides the sand paper that is ? I mean they will not last forever . It just sucks that they go down in the most inopportune time

[mattb]

My Cobra did the same thing and I stopped at the rc place for a motor, but the guy wasn't very helpful. I just bought s slow motor from Ebay.

[Reek455]

Thank you all for the replies. The unit is around 2 years old to the best of my knowledge. I have checked and rechecked pulley and belt alignment, all appears to be in order. I have emailed Hudy USA and waiting for their response. In the mean time I may fully disassemble and see if I can spot anything.

[Pappy]

There is guy named Dale Ryan that goes by Triggerman on Slotblog that does the Knob Job on Hudy tire truers. It makes it possible to true your tires right down to a couple of thousands of an inch of what you want. He will re-build, align the drum, replace bad bearings, replace O-Rings and has replacement Hudy motors for $35 and replacement Hudy drums with two ball bearings for $55.

There is another guy on Slotblog that goes by gotboostedvr6 named Dave Parrotta that sells real good diamond drums for Hudy's. If you're doing a lot of silicone tires I highly recommend them.

[Pappy]

Just so there is no confusion. He doesn't re-build your tire truer, replace bearings, O-Rings and the Hudy motor for $35. The motor itself is $35 not including any labor or other parts.

[Reek455]

Thanks again for the replies. I finally got smart and took off the drive belt and it was the motor causing the issue. I disassembled the truer and hooked up the motor to the power supply and while it was running I sprayed some Blue Shower electronics cleaner in it and the motor cleaned up and started running faster and the draw went down to almost normal. I lubed both bushings and reassembled. It's working normally for now but I may have to replace the motor at some point. Pappy, thanks for the leads on replacement parts, much appreciated.

Regards
Rico

[HO RacePro]

A bushing in your motor may be worn out. The belt pulls the armature shaft against the near bushing, which will cause localized wear. Eventually the bushing will wear enough that the armature will rub against a magnet, causing excessive drag. The motor may burn out.

Inspect the motor bushings. You may be able to replace just the bushings, saving you most of the cost of the motor. Alternatively you might rotate the motor 180 degrees in its mount, so the opposite side of the bushing, which should not have worn much, will take the load. That should double your motor life.

Assuming the issue is in fact a worn bushing, you might try using a heavier grade of oil when lubing the motor, and lubing it more frequently. It won't fix the bushing, but it might extend its life.

Ed Bianchi

[Kevan]

The motor in a Hudy truer should last a lifetime, the problem it has compared to in an R/C car is the rubber dust off the truer, keep the crap out and it'll be fine.

[Fathead59]

I wonder if you could put a shield to block the rubber dust from the wheels to try and keep it off the motor ? Just a thought , I have a Tire Razor myself

[Kevan]

You can, it's called tape.

[Mitch58]

Rico, let me know. I think I have a couple of spare 540 motors in my RC box.

[RichD]

Hudy uses R/C type motors with ball bearings. Those need a little oil once in a while. It looks like dust from the motor brushes can short the commutator, that is also a common problem with the motors used in 1/32nd cars. The easiest cure is a shot or two of contact cleaner.
Slot Car Corner has Hudy replacement parts, including the motor, which costs $34.

[Pappy]

I didn't know Slot Car Corner had Hudy parts. Thanks