Rebuilt Motors

[billythekid13]

There is a golf cart repair shop in my local area that SWEARS by rebuilding motors and they claim it is the better way to go in comparison to buying a new high powered controller.

I know this is pretty much what plum quick does. But has anyone had good experience in doing the motor rebuild rather than a new controller?

[WalterM6]

A motor rebuild isn't going to do nothing for you. You will still have a stock motor. Spend that money for a higher horsepower motor. On the other hand a new controller will remove all speed restrictions and you will get higher speeds.

[R&TBabich]

Originally Posted by WalterM6

A motor rebuild isn't going to do nothing for you. You will still have a stock motor. ....

I just installed a stock rebuilt motor in our 2003 IQ.
I was mainly interested in making sure the 17 year old motor was at least back to "new" condition before having more amps go thru it.
It will now go about 2 mph faster across the board.
Our cart has 10.3:1 gears so with 18.5" tires it is the same as having 22" tires on a cart with 12.0:1 gears.
It will now do 22 mph on flat ground and 16 mph up a mild hill.
It used to go 19 mph and 14 mph.
I will be installing an Alltrax XCT 48400 and will see how it goes.

[Fairtax4me]

There's a big difference between a ReBuild and a Re-Wind.
A rebuild is new bearing, new brushes, resurface the commutator and splash some paint on the outside. It's still the same motor, same power, same speed.

A Re-WIND, which is what Plum Quick does can get you a bit more power by changing the number of winds of copper in the field coils, and possibly pairing it with a different armature to make the best use of the field.
The number of winds in the field coils affects the strength of the magnetic field the motor creates and can be used to make more or less power, or speed, or a combination of the two. But this does nothing to change how much power the controller delivers to the motor.
The controller is almost always the bottle neck, as it determines how any total amps can get to the motor. Amps are torque. And no matter what motor you have if you can't supply enough amps the motor doesn't make any more torque.
It all depends on how you need to use the cart, but in the end you get FAR more power and speed from a controller upgrade than you can get from just a motor rewind.

[billythekid13]

Originally Posted by WalterM6

A motor rebuild isn't going to do nothing for you. You will still have a stock motor. Spend that money for a higher horsepower motor. On the other hand a new controller will remove all speed restrictions and you will get higher speeds.

Why would he be doing 5-10 motor rebuilds a week if it does nothing?

[WalterM6]

Why would he be doing 5-10 motor rebuilds a week if it does nothing?

Probably the same reason I had mine done. I needed a motor that would do 20-25 mph to be street legal. Putting a speed magnet in it solved that problem. But that was for flat land. I live in a hilly area so I needed additional hp to maintain 20 mph going uphill. I had to upgrade my motor again for the hills. BTW I'm only speaking of the Bandit motor. Not blaming Plum Quick it was my poor choice. I was still able to get street legal and was able to resell the PQ motor.

[R&TBabich]

Originally Posted by WalterM6

Probably the same reason I had mine done. I needed a motor that would do 20-25 mph to be street legal. ....

I didn't realize doing 25 mph was a requirement to be street legal.
Our Pathway was intended to be street legal capable and it just has a stock 3.2 hp GE motor in it that would only do 19 mph.

[WalterM6]

The Pathway was a joint venture between GM and Club Car. When these carts were in the GM program they did 23 MPH, when they were removed from the program and sold to the public the speed was turned down to 19.

[Nutshell]

EMP does a motor upgrade by rebuilding stock motors. He can pretty much do anything you want. Due to intense demand, he is not doing any custom motors for retail customers until September.

[_ogre]

Originally Posted by Fairtax4me

and splash some paint on the outside.

aka auto zone starter rebuild