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I bought a 1500w motor & supposedly compatible controller from ebay. I put it together, and it worked good!

I let it sit a few weeks. Hub is now FROZEN. it has ~2" of free roll then hard stop. I CANNOT turn the wheel past this point.

  • I unplugged everything from the hub. It remains frozen.
  • The hub itself was outside but under a tarp during hurricane Ida. I set the controller up AFTER that. Worked good over a week of testing. It has seen a little rain since, but it lives in a carport.
  • A friend suggested that the motor might actually be a 1kW not a 1.5kW, and the controller toasted it? Seems iffy, because it was fine on the last ride.
  • With ~20 lbs of torque the wheel will not spin at all. I am hesitant to push harder.

I'm stuck! Do you got any ideas? Thanks!

There will be no technical support from the seller, it came from a Chinese seller via Ebay.

Are there any rust marks visible on the outside?
Yes - the spring-wire-protector-thingy at the axle shows some corrosion.

Can you roll the motor backward at all past the 2" window or is it a hard clonk at both limits?
Hard lock in both directions, but no resistance till it locks.

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  • There are at least a half-dozen possible causes of this. Need to narrow it down.
    – Daniel R Hicks
    Commented Oct 16, 2021 at 2:17
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    "I got a 1500w motor from ebay" -- there's your problem. Buying a 250w mid-drive motor from a reputable manufacturer like Bosch or Shimano would have been a better plan. (Except I understand that they are mainly sold in already assembled bikes and it isn't easy to find frames that accept these motors sold separately.)
    – juhist
    Commented Oct 16, 2021 at 8:01
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    “i unplugged everything from the hub. It remains frozen.” This pretty much makes it a mechanical problem. Sometimes these motors have a built-in freewheel mechanism. It’s conceivable that the pawls or some other part got stuck (maybe because the grease went hard or bad). Is there any way to open it?
    – Michael
    Commented Oct 16, 2021 at 8:28
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    @TrassVasston You can also take photos when you get stuck, and post a new question here or in Bicycles Chat. We'll try and help, but ebike motors internals are kind-of getting toward the electrics SE site's areas.
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Oct 16, 2021 at 9:13
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    @juhist excellent point on the wattage. In some parts of the world, an ebike is limited by power. I could have up to 300W of assist, but if the motor is over that then legally it becomes an electric motorbike and needs registration, plates, rider needs a motorbike licence, WOF, etc.
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Oct 16, 2021 at 9:15

2 Answers 2

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If I had this bike, I'd contemplate selling it (or the kit) as a $1 no-reserve auction. It is going to be a continuous stream of problems, and you're heading for the sunk-cost fallacy.

In the short term, take the motor off the bike, and restore it to normal operation so you can still ride.

Your fixing option is to start with exploratory surgery into the motor, and see what you see. If you're really lucky you might find some documentation on the web to assist, otherwise you're going to have to take it apart one piece at a time.

Remember to take photos as you go, to help with the reassembly process. I started listing tools you might need, but it got very long and useless.

Based on the description, it is a 3 phase AC motor in the wheel's hub, with a separate controller at the handlebars and a separate battery on the frame or on a rear rack. There would be two DC power wires from battery to controller, and three power wires from controller to the motor, and possibly smaller sensor wires coming back the other way from motor to controller. There's a handlebar "dashboard" and possibly a throttle.

So you won't see much by putting a DC multimeter on the motor wires - its potentially a 90V AC wave at up to 400 Hz (many combinations have been used) DON'T GET HURT you could do yourself an injury if the system is energised.
So take the batteries out, hold the throttle open to completely discharge all capacitors. Extra safety, leave the whole bike unplugged overnight and work on it the next day.

The problem described suggests that "something" has moved into the wrong place and is blocking "something else" My first thought is a planetary gear has somehow moved and is blocking the ring/pinion gear from moving, or a bearing ball/needle has fallen into the wrong place.

It's also possible you've had a shaft fail and the debris is blocking something in the gearing.

A good hard shake of the motor in several orientations might be useful. You should not hear things rattling around inside - if you do, they have to come out.

So - if you're competent with your hands and with tools, then this could be a good project. However if you're not confident with tools, perhaps let this motor-kit go and consider buying something better next time.

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    We've decided to see about returning it, and if their policy so allows, we will keep the motor and attempt to fix it then. I am marking this as the answer, as it is in line with the top comments from other forums.
    – Trass Vasston
    Commented Oct 18, 2021 at 22:27
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please read the full message before jumping in Dude it's super easy to take the hubs apart unscrew both sides and get a larg pully puller from your local hardware store I went to harbor freight they have a set of three that cost like 25 bucks put it on the side that doesn't have the wire coming out the shaft and slowly crank it you could do it by hand and it won't damage anything but when you are putting it back together make sure you put the wire side and first keep your fingers away from the magnetic field and slowly put it back gently rocking the motor back and forth it's going to pull in real hard about a quarter inch from the hubs rim trying to suck it back in you're going to have to hold it kind of firm is it a strong Pole and guided in I also suggest getting a little bit of Grease to put in between the magnets and the motor it helps with the magnets but on the side where you are going to be shoving the motor shaft out that side will have a little circuit board with five connections you're positive negative yellow green and blue and it'll also have three little sensors that are tucked in between the magnets be very careful with those little sensors you break those things up it's a pain in the ass to replace them because they're so tiny of little legs and yet clear out each one of the holes before getting it and those are just a pain in the ass to get any Ohio check to make sure that those three little sensors all three of their legs are firmly attached to the board and look around the solder connections to make sure that those wires didn't lose their connection to the circuit board other than that you could pop off the other side by taping the wire towards the end of the shaft that way it stays down put a little bit of cooking oil on the outer casing and then slightly pull the casing back it'll kind of lock on and put the polar onto the end of that side of the shaft if the wire comes out the end of the shaft I suggest putting a quarter on the end and getting a little hot glue and putting it around the other side of the wire to keep it from getting clipped from the wires out Port from the end of the shaft just melt it around and then put the quarter on the end and slowly use the polar to pull it off check and make sure that all three of the bigger wires are completely cased because they'll be soldered to the actual windings and then they'll be an extra one that doesn't have wire running to it that's a conjunction where all three of them can bind just make sure that it has a little sleeve lid on it and it's not grounding out to the inside of the frame of the hub motor just wipe everything down spray it with a little WD-40 get some white lithium grease I do this every couple months it should take about I'd say a good 45 minutes my first time I think I took about 3 hours but that's because I clipped my wires and had to pull them into the hub solder them cover them and then pull it back through that's why I'm saying you use the hot glue and before starting this please read the full message

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  • Holy, that's some wall of text. Nobody's going to read that the way it is; please separate it into sentences and paragraphs with punctuation.
    – DavidW
    Commented Oct 2, 2022 at 20:59

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