MAC motor sucked in a lot of water

[dirtdad]

I rode my MAC motor in a light rain / drizzle for about 12 miles. It worked fine for the next few days, about another 30 miles, then it started to run rough and turned off after a few seconds. It was definitely a hall sensor issue, but I had not rearranged the connectors, so I presumed a bad connection. I did continuity testing on my connectors, they were fine. I opened the motor to inspect the hall sensors, and a small puddle of water came out of my motor. I dried it off and let it air dry and put it together and retested. No change to the problem.

I am hoping I just need to give it more time to dry off. Nothing in the motor seems like it would be permanently damaged by getting wet, but clearly something didn't like it. (Of course you don't want it to get wet to start with). The Hall sensor PC board only has traces to the Hall sensors, no components of its own. Could the hall sensors have gotten destroyed by water? Or is it possible the motor will work after letting it fully dry out?

Waterproofness of the motor is another issue I may start in another thread.

 

[99t4]

I rode my MAC motor in a light rain / drizzle for about 12 miles...

My local environment is pretty much solid rain for 9 months of the year. None of my hubmotors seemed to have suffered from daily trips thru what sometimes approaches what looks like the inside of a washing machine, but I did encounter problems with water intrusion into connectors, displays, controllers. Maybe your problem is in one of those components?

 

[E-HP]

I rode my MAC motor in a light rain / drizzle for about 12 miles. It worked fine for the next few days, about another 30 miles, then it started to run rough and turned off after a few seconds. It was definitely a hall sensor issue, but I had not rearranged the connectors, so I presumed a bad connection. I did continuity testing on my connectors, they were fine. I opened the motor to inspect the hall sensors, and a small puddle of water came out of my motor. I dried it off and let it air dry and put it together and retested. No change to the problem.

I am hoping I just need to give it more time to dry off. Nothing in the motor seems like it would be permanently damaged by getting wet, but clearly something didn't like it. (Of course you don't want it to get wet to start with). The Hall sensor PC board only has traces to the Hall sensors, no components of its own. Could the hall sensors have gotten destroyed by water? Or is it possible the motor will work after letting it fully dry out?

Waterproofness of the motor is another issue I may start in another thread.

You can just test the hall sensors to eliminate or confirm the possibility the sensors are bad.

https://ebikes.ca/documents/HallSensorTestingFinal.pdf

Reading various threads on waterproofing, it seems there isn't really a wat to fully seal a hub motor since there are so many ways water can make its way in, and the heating and cooling of the motor creates a vacuum that sucks water in. Sealing ends up sealing in any water that does get in. The solution I see most often is to drill some weep holes in the case to let the water out. However connectors can be waterproofed. Did your controller or throttle get wet too?

 

[offGridDownUnder]

One common aspect of mounting the motors is to ensure that the cable exits the motor and heads downwards before curving in any other direction, so that water that runs along the cable is not conducted into the motor, but rather drips off the low point in the cable(s) first.