Waydoo Flyer One and One+ Burned Out Motor Repair Dissassemble Teardown and Replacement
The motor burned out on our Waydoo Flyer One+. The initial sign was it slowly loosing power during a ride. Now the motor spins under power, but it has significant resistance. When spinning it by hand, it does not spin easily and feels like it's grinding or rubbing, suggesting that the stator (coils) are contacting the rotor (magnetic core) or a bad bearing.
I contacted Waydoo who have been quite responsive. Since it's out of warranty, I decided to carefully open the motor to inspect and investigate the cause of the issue. Watch the video to see what I discovered.
I put a pan underneath it before opening, because I was expecting oil to spill out, since these are supposed to be filled with transformer oil. Waydoo even has a video on how to refill the transformer oil. Here's a clip from that video. Although the mast shown in the video is a Flyer One, the motor should be identical to the Flyer One+.
Here's a Facebook post talking about oil coming out when they opened the motor. There are many owners of Flyer One and One+ who talk about oil leaking out.
The first thing I noticed was that the motor was completely dry inside. No oil or water. I was expecting the motor to be filled with oil. There was never oil in the motor, as there was no oily residue. There was only dust from the motor winding coating breaking down due to heat.
These are the oil ports. There are 2. The one on the core side of the bearing is the fill port. The one closest to the shaft of the motor is the overflow/purge port.
The motor output bearing looked in perfect shape and it felt smooth.
I was most impressed that there was no water in the motor. One of the purposes of filling the motors with oil is to keep water out. The oil can not be compressed, and therefore water cannot displace it.
There are 2 motor output shaft seals. The oil purge set screw is between the outer and inner seal. It's barely visible in this picture.
I'm this image, both seals can
A wire from the windings was broken, loose, and rubbing against the motor stator core. That is the grinding noise I heard, not the bearings.
Here's a full video of opening the motor and removing the stator core. You can see that there's no oil. It is completely dry and dusty.
It appears that this motor left the factory without oil. My understanding is that oil prevents water from entering the motor and cools and lubricates it. It transfers heat from the stator and windings to the motor's outer shell. This explains why the motor eventually burned up.
I will submit a ticket as well, but this board is no longer under warranty. However, since the oil was missing from the motor from the factory, this is a factory defect and should be replaced outside the standard warranty.
REPLACING THE MOTOR WITH A DIFFERENT MOTOR
FLIPSKY has a wide variety of motors available for eFOIL and other watersports.
The ID of the Waydoo Flyer One and One+ shell is 66mm. This motor has a 65.5mm OD shell. If the Waydoo Flyer One+ motor can be gutted, then this motor could be installed in the shell with conductive epoxy.
The biggest challenge won't be replacing the motor. It will be finding a way to attach the stabilizer that holds the rear wing. Waydoo has a custom stabilizer mount that attaches to the custom machined front of the motor housing. That won't work with the new motor.
I have an idea of how to machine a stabilizer that will clamp onto the OD of the new motor that is sticking out of the housing of the old motor.
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