Problems with Trident Motors

[r_wolff]

I am very disheartened by the recent Trident news and have concern for Trident owners having the continued ability to obtain replacement motors and party. Especially motors.

I wish to share some motor tear-down photos of replacement motors recently installed on my Trident. These replacement motors have only 2 days of saltwater diving on them, and the Trident has been in storage for a few months. FYI, I do a long and thorough freshwater immersion and run-out of the Trident and motors using Star Brite Salt Off Salt Removing Wash.

These motors were installed early 2020, as is, from SoFar Support and were not disassembled and treated any corrosion block coatings prior to use.

I want to do some dives next week and in preparation, I notice that the left motor was initially seized and required a hand turn to get it running. I also noticed this motor sounded and felt a bit ‘gritty,’ so I decided to do a quick tear-down and cleaning of both rear motors assemblies.

Upon removing the motor shaft clip and separating the rotor/stator assembly, I could see internal corrosion and material buildup. The left had minor corrosion and salt crystals, while the right had minor corrosion and a loose greenish/greyish balled material. It appears to be a material release of the internal coating used to cover the copper of the outer rotor and not the coating of the stator windings. (See photos)

I wanted to share pictures of the coating coming off and ask if there are any recommended materials or procedures to prevent the internal corrosion and breakdown of these motors? I believe I should be able to get more dives out of a motor. (FYI, I am using Corrosion Bloc and Marine Nano Protech upon cleanup and reassembly) In total, there are a maximum of 3-4 hours of total submersion time on these replacement motors. This time includes the freshwater clean-out time, as well.

The left motor, with the salt crystals, appears to have more ‘play’ in its seal with the clip in place. Change in thrust direction, I believe, allowed more water infiltration with this one not closing as ‘tight’ as the other. It’s not much play, with an estimated 0.005”-.010” movement.

I did not disassemble the vertical thruster motor. I think the vertical thruster motor encounters fewer issues because of its orientation and better ability to maintain an air pocket.

Thanks for reading……

[Jim_N]

Thanks @r_wolf, you can pull the brass covering out. You’ll rip it apart doing so, but what happens is that over time water gets between the magnets and the brass and corrosion builds and the brass locks tight against the wire winding. To continue to use the motors, you need to remove the brass cover and remove the corrosion on the magnets. Then coat the magnets and coil in wd-40 or dielectric grease, etc and reassemble.

I’ll post a vid in the next day or so about it.

Thanks

Jim

[pforperry]

Awesome photos…it seems we are on the same track but I have never seen that type of issue in any of my motors.

I have found that long term storage of motors is an issue because of the small amount of moisture that remains in the motor housings. It helps to service the motors before storing them (see my other post).

[r_wolff]

Thanks Jim! I look forward to seeing the video. I believe it will be useful for a lot of Trident owners.

[practicalcomposites]

Hi JIm;

Thanks for the information on cleaning up motors. Is there a central location to find this type of information, or do I have to search the forums?

You mentioned that you were “very disheartened by the recent Trident news and have concern for Trident owners having the continued ability to obtain replacement motors”. Was there a particular announcement?

Thanks,

Stephen

[pforperry]

G’day Stephen,

Jim is likely to be talking about the announcement by Sofar that Trident is being discontinued.

I have not yet found a more central location for information about Trident than this forum. Keep the questions coming.