DervMafia Eddy Current Dyno Upgrade

[darrenjlobb]

So next step was to start investigating the Eddy Brake situation.

It was clear from the hardware left lying around with the dyno that the eddy brake hasn't been used in some time, and the previous owner had been running it as an inertia only unit, so fairly useless for tuning purposes etc. So was fairly sure the brake would be riddled with issues, but wouldn't be any fun if it was all working right?!


So first step was to get it into the shop, and as with everything on this dyno, this thing is ****ing heavy!!!




So before even bothering to do much testing I decided to just strip the unit right down and go through it, as clearly there hasnt been any love for quite some time etc...So started by removing the shafts / bearings, and then rotors from the main shaft:






So initial inspection revealed a few obvious problems, both electrically and mechanically.
Firstly the center core had a lip seal wrecked / sticking out one side, so that pretty much sealed the deal for replacing bearings / seals / oil etc in the center, and secondly before even putting the meter on the unit I could see coils that had been changed / fitted incorrectly which had left them loose / allowed to vibrate which has caused wires to break off, so started by fixing the obvious faults, and going through disconnecting each coil so we could test the lot.

Re crimping ends on the faulty coils, we had to crimp as the coils are alloy windings, so unable to solder anything here, but quality crimps and some heat shrink makes for a tidy job:



The coils missing:



Re fitting the repaired coils with new bolts / gasket material to hold them firmly in place this time:




Stripped down the center core...was totally dry, bearings very noisy, one seized, and seals ruined, so good job I tore it right apart!!



Ever growing pile of parts from the eddy brake:



Also dropped top frame in to test measurements, which are correct which is good news, and sits level, so fairly happy with that!



Thanks for reading, harvest nearly over now so bit more time hopefully soon if i can catch up the trimming / ploughing!