window motor backlash

[Dan Richardson]

the rule states that you cannot modify the motor. now questions have come up many times about modifying the gear boxes attached to the motors. this is of course ok becuase it is just like removing the gearbox completly(is legal) and making your own. the violation would occure if you opend the motor and added your own busihings or something of that sort.

I also understood this rule to mean that.. but after reading that rule again, I have come to a different conclusion. I always thought that modding the gearboxes was ok, but that rule clearly says not to modify integral mechanical parts, warm gears and such. I always thought it meant, adding more coils to the motor itself or something. I'm glad we didn't modify any of our gearboxes this year, as we had considered modding the globes.

But back to the original post, in my teams experience, we have not come to like the window motors.. They tended to burn out and have a very poor motor curve. Backlash was a constant problem and we even accidently popped the face off of one of our motors when it was under load. For most jobs now if possible I always recommend using the globes.. they are about the same rpm, and have a much better output. Tho this late into the build season that info might not help you too much.

Good luck I don't know what the app of your arm is so I wouldn't be able to offer any advice for another mechanism to stop backlash w/o modding the motor's gear box.