Ford longshaft motor made in Italy??

[rogerflies]

In this thread:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=905464

Salty One says, "I have a winch that I bought a new motor for to replace the old motor. The new motor is a copy of the long shaft Ford motor. It is manufactured in Italy and is brand new."

I asked him for a link to the site where he bought the motor, but I got no response.

Is he mistaken? Is someone in Italy really making reproductions of the Ford longshaft? Anybody got any info on it?

Roger

[V1VrV2]

Not sure but I think he probably meant India NOT Italy.

Not sure why the Italians would want to mess with parts for vintage farm equipment. There are THOUSANDS of old Ford tractors in India.

Then again I could be wrong...

Thermals,
Tony

[pmackenzie]

Maybe it is from a Lamborghini (http://www.samedeutz-fahr.com/lamborghini/) :D


Pat MacKenzie

[SaltyOne]

It's late so the quick answer is I bought the motor from Injoy a couple of years ago. The link came from SuperSkeg's website. The owner of Injoy told me the motors are manufactured in Italy. Tomorrow I'll see if there is a country of manufacture designation on the motor. I know it works great. My first motor was a rebuild from a major auto parts chain. It died on the third launch. I decided to rebuild it myself. When I took it apart I discovered the "rebuild" consisted of a fresh coat of paint on the outside of the can and nothing more. I put fresh brushes in it and cleaned up the commutator. It lasted about three more flying sessions until the shaft bent. It has about 1/8" of runout. Not great for a smooth launching or anything else. Long story short the new motor works great and all parts are truly new.

George

[rogerflies]

Yeah, it came from India. Mystery cleared up. Hopes dashed. :(

Thanks,
Roger

[SaltyOne]

rogerflies - I think you are correct. I now think he said the motor came from India. It was a long time ago so my my memory must have failed me. The good news for me is the motor must have been part of his stock of "high quality" Indian motors. It has been running for two years plus without a hitch and still looks new. I read his blog about his search for good motors and he says the factory where my motor came from is closed. Apparently the Indian motors now available are junk, so he doesn't import them anymore. He has two motors he sells which are not car starter motors and are supposedly of very high quality. One has 4.5 hp (wow)! He knows his motors and I trust his judgement. Unfortunately the new motors are a little pricey, but like the old saying "sometimes you have to pay to play".

George

[Ercoupe Ed]

I still have an operable winch with a Ford longshaft motor in it.
I haven't used it for several years, but it still works just fine.
My winch isn't as high tech as the newer ones, but it will get the job done.
Doesn't have the oooomphh of the newer winches, but I prefer something that I don't have to worry about ripping the wings off of my sailplanes.
I purchased it a long time ago at NAPA, some other auto parts stores used to carry it.
A guy I used to work with was part owner in an auto salvage yard in a small town ( Paris Kentucky) and he told me about 3 years ago that he had 20 or 30 of them on shelves inside their main building, all operable.
Then again, since they were in Ford farm tractors, you might check with some farm tractor and implement dealers, they might possibly have one laying around, or be able to access one.

Ed in Indiana

[rogerflies]

I was wondering about the quality of the Indian motors. Someone sent me one about two years ago to install ball bearings in. It was dropshipped from Injoy.

It was one of the junky ones. There was no grease on the bushings and something was shorted inside when I got it. Sparks flew inside the motor when I applied power, and it squealed like a stuck pig when it started turning. The castings were full of pores and hard inclusions.

I was able to get the job done OK, and it was running nicely when it left. I've refused to work on them since, though.

Roger

[Ercoupe Ed]

Hi Roger,
I think he one I have was made by AC Delco here in the USA.
I haven't purchased a long shaft motor for a long time.
If mine were to go bad, there are a couple of real good electrical repair shops that rebuild starter motors and alternators here in my immediate area, I'd simply get it rebuilt and not risk buying a foreign made motor.

I suppose like many other automakers, Ford "outsourced" or "farmed out" the building of it's staarter motors.

Makes you wonder what's under the hood in our cars nowadays.

[allanp]

Maybe it's the part of the country I'm in(Orlando,Fl) but when I was equip manager and we need motors/repairs I went to a "real" starter repair shop.You know one of those places where dust and dirt are prevalent and the tech is likely to be missing a finger or two! Anyway the walls were lined with old motors all the way to the ceiling and the tech had no trouble finding FLS parts,be it shafts or armatures,for $5 he'd change the brushes if the case was bare.Look around in your area as the mom and pop shops are more than willing to help you out and if you tell them you launch planes with them the price usually drops
Allan

[Mark Miller]

I have a winch with an old Injoy indian motor and it is a nice working unit. I also have a winch with a rebuilt unit from NAPA. It works nicely as well. I have 2 FLS motors that need rebuilding. I'm going to have a local rebuild shop have a wack at them.

Mark Miller

[jbrandon]

Mark, it is built in India not an Indian built motor!

That being said I will be in St Louis next weekend and will have one (or more) winches powered by new American motors for you to try out. I actually think once you do you will not go back to the FLS way of thinking.

Jim Brandon

[Mark Miller]

Hi Jim,

I can't wait to give the winch a try. Working with technology from 1955 is bound to be upgraded sooner or later. I checked NAPA awhile back and they had 4 rebuilt units amongst all of their warehouses in the USA.

We currently have 5 club owned winches (I'm equipment manager) and the only down side is the outlay to get them all updated to the new motors. We have another 3 or 4 guys with their own winches too. We have 2 old NATS winches, 2 of unknown lineage and 1 that you may have been involved in. Has a nice drum outer support bearing with a sailplane engraved on it.

Our last club contest we ran 6 winches and it was nice to have them all somewhat the same. My personal winch is the smallest and has the motor built in India and I like it a lot. I got the motor as a raffle prize a few years back at the NATS workers dinner. See you this weekend.

Mark

[jbrandon]

Mark, our club currently has only 8 active members in our very small club. We have a couple of extremely completive FLS powered winches owned by Tim and Jim (not me) but we have 4 members (again not me) who own the W9149 powered winches built by me (Winch2048 (http://www.theshope.net/)). I do give a club discount but not all that much, just ask the owners. Honestly we are probably the most winch rich club in the country!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a well prepared FLS powered winch; they will perform very well, no, let me rephrase, extremely well. My major and only complaint is the FLS is going (gone) away and we as a sailplane group have done nothing to promote a new motor for our winch use. I’ve seen a lot or verbiage about this motor and that motor but no one has defined a motor as good as the FLS for a replacement in our sport.

The motor I use is an industry standard motor used in hydraulic pump applications and not being a starter motor has a continuous duty rating (rant expected) unlike a starter motor. They contain ball bearings front and back from the manufacture and so far have out performed the FLS in every venue it has entered into. No one has walked away shaking their head wondering why…

I too am looking forward to the St Louis Gateway Open this coming weekend and meeting you and many others. I do hope I can provide a winch for casual use if not contest use next weekend.

As a side note I am also hoping to meet old fiends there as I was the founder of the MVSA club back in the early 70’s.

Jim Brandon

[rogerflies]

Mark,

If you need a good armature or other parts for your FLS rebuilds, I've got some for sale here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=848982

Roger

[R. Carver]

***SNIP*** and font returned to normal...
My major and only complaint is the FLS is going (gone) away and we as a sailplane group have done nothing to promote a new motor for our winch use. I’ve seen a lot or verbiage about this motor and that motor but no one has defined a motor as good as the FLS for a replacement in our sport.


So tell us the supplier and and part number of the motor that you use :D

[jbrandon]

So tell us the supplier and and part number of the motor that you use :D
The part number is W9149 and they can ordered from this site (http://www.theshope.net/store.aspx) - about 1/4 way down the page…

Jim

[superskeg]

So tell us the supplier and and part number of the motor that you use :D
Let's not forget http://www.injoy-1.com/catal_sail.htm who originally developed the TB1248 and TB1225 motors for the soaring market.