Yep, tested the new motor.
Tom had two motors that were rated at 1/2 HP and 24 volts. The shell of the motor was the same diameter as my wrecked drivemotor, but it has a larger face plate, and different mounting holes.
I looked to see how I would need to drill new holes and mount the new motor.
Here's the best part. The holes were already there.
There was a second set of mounting holes that exactly matched the new motor!
I mounted the new motor with some shiny stainless steel bolts.
(Notice the unusual bolt pattern. The lower left hole is used for EITHER of the bolt configurations. The upper right hole had a plug in it, and the lower-right hole is hidden behind the pulley. Because of all that, I didn't immediately recognize that there was a second motor mounting bolt pattern. I was pleasently surprised when I found out it matched perfectly with the new motor! Also, this motor sits UP from the bottom of the mower. I believe the original motor was wrecked because of rust from it sitting in pooled rain water in the bottom of the mower. The new motor no longer sits on the bottom of the mower, so it should be much less of an issue.)
Once it was on there, I spun the motor with the batteries, and held some Scotch-Brite against the shaft to clean off the surface rust.
The original motor had a 7/8" shaft, but the new one was smaller. We dug around Tom's basement, and found a 3" pulley with the right inside diameter for the motor.
We put air in the tires and and test drove the mower in the bottom of the driveway and the street. The blades are hooked up to turn on and off with a contactor, but the motor was powered by connecting/disconnecting a big Anderson connector.
We all figured it would be a bad idea to have both the blades and motor controlled at the same time with the same contactor, because then you could never drive the tractor around without the blades on.
Better is to add a seperate switch for the motor. We had a 100 amp disconnect key switch around, and figured that would work.
Since I am not using the tractors original charger - a big old transformer with a timer switch - we pulled the rusted old timer out, and drilled the hole bigger to add the power disconnect.
When I got home, I mowed one section of my lawn. The drive motor seemed to work well. It doesn't go up the big hill out by the road super-great, but my gas tractor never really did either.
The speed of the tractor is pretty good. I wouldn't mind a little faster speed in the highest gear, but I don't think I want to give up torque for now either. I still plan to add a snowblower for the winter, and will want all the power I can get!
