Tri-Burner Fix

My tri-burner motor stopped working and at first glance I thought I would need to replace the stoker because it's quite an integrated system. I took it apart and realized that the bushing was a little sloppy. My thought was that the dusty fines were wearing on the bushing causing some excessive play. The shaft that rides in the bushing is also the shaft that centers the rotor in the stator. I think that the play became so large that the rotor was actually touching the stator wall preventing it from spinning. My fix was to replace the bushing with a bearing. The shaft was a strange dimension that didn't offer a direct drop-in bearing so I had to add an adapter to the shaft to fit a standard bearing. The bearing is sealed and should perform much better than the factory bushing. (fyi - I contacted the factory that made the motor to see if they had the same spec with a sealed bearing option and they didn't offer the unit anymore and they said they didn't make them for Reading Stove anymore)

Been running 24/7 since October without a hiccup or an indication that it wasn't the proper fix. Before updating, it wouldn't even spin and if it did, it vibrated excessively and would stop intermittently.

Below are my pics of the fix...

Wow, that's a pretty impressive fix. I never would have thought you could get a sealed bearing for that, let alone a shaft adapter!

Nice but can you supply part numbers and/or source so that others may be able to rebuild their tri burner motors ??



Rick

Very nicely done!! did you machine the shaft adapter or was it commercially available?

Greg L

Sorry - no these aren't commercially available. I had them custom machined from a machine shop. The drawings are below for the parts and the bearing was purchased from McMaster Carr - part# 6384K342. The press fit with the bearing was a little on the tight side so I'd modify the hole diameter a little if you were to copy this.

Very cool. I love little projects like this! Are there two, one for the other end of the shaft? Or...is that what is the sleeve is for?

Thanks for sharing.

I'm not exactly sure what the other side is. I'd have to take another look. It's the side that has the gear on it that fits into the gear reduction system so it might be guided by that. It's definitely in a cleaner area and it facing downward though so the dust wouldn't fall into it.

The shaft adapter is purely because the shaft is a very strange diameter and you can't get a standard bearing and/or bushing to fit it. It's not metric or a standard SAE size so I just made an adaptation to use a standard bearing.

Did you ever consider having more of them made and selling them?

coaldale wrote:Did you ever consider having more of them made and selling them?

I did at first, but I don't think there's a huge market for this, which is why I put the drawings up anyway. I also don't know if all tri-burners are the same, but I know this one fits mine.