Best Bearings for the Brushless motor?

Hello,

I'm sure a few people have been having the same problem with the noisy motor bearing after a bit of use.

Has anyone got any input or decent knowledge of what bearings would be best suited to a brushless motor of this size?

Thanks - Milly

 

Are you referring to the drive gear bearing? If so, I don't think there are any options besides the ones provided. I just ordered some new ones since mine are particularly noisy lately despite efforts to clean.

 

Are the motor bearings and drive gear bearings the same thing? If so, they are just normal bearings in which case some of the members on this forum recommend ceramic.

 

Yeah sorry... I have yet to take apart the motor yet and didn't even realize there was a bearing inside the motor. However, I plan on replacing mine soon as I have a bunch of miles on my board and have been trying to figure out the noise lately.

 

The bearing in the motor is a 608 (standard size skate wheel bearing) the drive gear bearings are different, 690 of I remember correctly.

You can get all different kinds of bearings in those sizes. The standard motor ones are not sealed. They are NSK brand bearings and will be called something like 608z the 'z' is a suffix for the type of bearing, the seal etc.NSK is a real good bearing brand however if the bearing is not suitable for that purpose then....click click..rattle rattle.

I am looking into what bearings would be best suited to the brushless motor. I will over time be replacing the standard bearings with better quality more suited for the job types.

Let me know if any of you guys have replaced and how many miles or K's you are getting out of them.

I got just over 250kms before one of my motor bearings started making a horrid noise. I live In a real dusty environment with heaps of iron ore dust coating the streets. ..regional remote Western Australia. Unsealed bearings are no good to me! That dust is abbrasive as hell.

-Milly

 

Which bearings did you end up going with?

 

I got some NSK V bearings I've done a little rebuild thread in the guides. I will keep a note of how many K's I get out of them ☺

 

I'm going to go for the Full Silicone Nitride (Si3N4) (Grey) Ceramic bearing when I dive into this job. Full ceramic works well for a motor bearing since they the highest efficiency bearing available, their downside is they're horrible with loading pressures. But with the motor, there is no loading pressure on the inner/outer races, hence why full ceramic works best in this application and where full ceramic is terrible for wheels.

The Si3N4 is the highest quality ceramic, there's a cheaper full ceramic, Zirconia Oxide (ZrO2) (White), but its not as hard nor durable as the Si3N4 version. I found the Si3N4 on ebay for $21-44 a piece and they can run up to $100 per bearing at times. Ceramic has the least amount of rolling resistance of any bearing, its also great in terms of heat since ceramic has an insulator property, its not a conductor like steel. Such as heat build up on the motor shaft / inner race of the bearing will not conduct / transmit much energy to the inner ball of the bearing, which heat evaporates and hardens your ball bearing lubrication, making it inefficient and prone to failure.

Full Ceramic 608 Skate Bearing 8 x 22 x 7 mm Metric full Si3N4 Silicon Nitride | eBay

 

How many bearings are in the motor all together? And how many of each type do you need?

 

One in each motor

 

So I still learning about bearings, but how would a bearinging like this go?
SS608-2RS | RS Pro Stainless Steel Deep Groove Ball Bearing SS608-2RS 8mm I.D, 22mm O.D | RS Pro

 

Great replacement write up by MIlly:

Motor rebuild with new sealed bearing

 

I ordered a set of those ceramic bearings I linked above, came in today. They look great, surprisingly light and they spin so well. Side seals look good too so, I'm pretty happy. Looking forward when I drop them into the GT.

 

And I got this great New Year's mail from the ACER Racing Bearing company. Love their slogan:

Happy New Year from the Fastest, Smoothest, HARDEST Balls in the Industry!

 

After chatting with Evolve support about my motor bearings I was recommended these:

Bronson Speed Co. G3 Bearings (Pack of 8)

 

Does anyone have a photo of the bearing before replacement?

I am looking to do this swap out before they become a problem, I have always been a fan of bones bearings but they have an open back. Mostly the sealed skate bearings are like this. Not sure if the bearing lube would cause an issue with the motor?

 

You definitely want a seal on both sides of the bearing or else you'll have a high failure rate. The motor has air-vents to cool it, the motors are in the rear of the board, rear of the wheels. That's the dirtiest / dustiest area of the board, an open bearing will just get all that crap inside it and prematurely wear. I saw a pic of the motor bearing, it was only one side, but it was sealed. Seal was metal, and usually they do both sides with that type of seal.

 

I found the pic of the original bearing, its the bearing on the left. The one on the right is the replacement Bronson bearing. Picture came from the Evolve GT Skateboard Owners group on FaceBook thanks to Tim:

 

thanks for the pic, so the original is a sealed bearing as well, just maybe not up to the task at hand

 

The original bearings are NSK 608 Z bearings. Z= shielded and not sealed. You want fully sealled bearings in the motors. Have a look for 608 RS or 608 V. Buy a reputable brand. It's not like the wheel where you need minimal rolling resistance. This is an electric motor we are talking about with magnetic resistance. The bearing 'speed' really won't make all that much difference!