Fisher Price Internal Fan Blades

[sanddrag]

Today we had a little problem with our Fisher Price motor. It is a bit of a long story how it happened but we have lost of the little beige colored fan blades inside the motor. They are very fragile and all but one snapped off. The rest of the motor is okay. Will we be okay to still run it or will it fry itself. It is not being used alone in the gearbox. Also, we plan to have an external heat sink and small fan right on it. Do you think it will be okay. (also, if we need to get a spare, has anyone found them yet?)

[BoyWithCape195]

[quote=sanddrag]The rest of the motor is okay. Will we be okay to still run it or will it fry itself. QUOTE]

The whole point of those fan blades is to cool the motor, and if the motor didn't need them, i doubt they would spend the money to put it there. Therefore, i have a feeling your motor might fry if it being used often.

[JVN]

Those fan blades perform almost ALL of the motor cooling.
Do NOT run the FP motor without them, under ANY load.

-JV

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Today we had a little problem with our Fisher Price motor. It is a bit of a long story how it happened but we have lost of the little beige colored fan blades inside the motor. They are very fragile and all but one snapped off. The rest of the motor is okay. Will we be okay to still run it or will it fry itself. It is not being used alone in the gearbox. Also, we plan to have an external heat sink and small fan right on it. Do you think it will be okay. (also, if we need to get a spare, has anyone found them yet?)

Sanddrag,
Let me guess...You were running the motor and at some point you looked and saw that there were pieces of plastic under the motor. If this is what occurred, the fan died when the motor over temped. The plastic fan becomes detached and starts to get chewed up by the armature when the motor is above a certain temperature for too long. (this is dependent on the motor orientation) If you smell the motor, you will know instantly that it is no good. BTW, this fan is not very efficient at low speeds and it does basically nothing when the motor is run for any length of time near stall.

[Mike Martus]

When the fan detaches - the motor is toast. or shall I say was toasted.

Yes the motor may still work, but not at full power and not for very long.
What you really need to do is to take a very close look at what caused the motor to overheat. Get the details. look at all stresses that were put on the system.

If you make no changes it will continue to happen, and that is a bad thing.

[Tytus Gerrish]

as those on SPAM would say ":sniff: AHH! Fisher price". you do not want to use it anymore. it's toast. enjoy the smell and remember what it is because you're going to smell it at competition and know what to do. Replace the Motor

[Kautz]

Is last years Fisher Price motor the same as this years?

[sanddrag]

Last year's FP is not the same. Also, we have not run the motor yet at all and therefore nothing has burned. All we can do for now is try it with lots of external cooling, and hopefully we can find a replacement. Does anyone know which p/n to give the PowerWheels service center?

[Evan Austin]

Hey Sanddrag,
In 03 we used fisher price motors as part of our drive and we got them so hot that they melted the fans right out of them. They still worked okay, though. After this, we made plastic mounts to place a muffin fan over the motor, which would pull air through and cool it. As Al said, the fans in the motor are almost useless at low RPM, but the muffin fan gives a constant flow of air at all times (as long as the muffin fan works!). Personally, I wouldn't use a fisher price motor without some kind of external cooling fan like this, even if the stock fan was still intact. It just doesn't give an adequate flow of air under the conditions that we put it through to keep it cool.