Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Kittredge Motor Housing help

Where do the wires inside GO? I suspect they were left long and trimmed into the panel during construction. Track it all the way there if you have to, disconnect and pull it through. Dismantling the thruster will be lots easier on the bench. It is, by the way, a threaded unit. George told me the motors and pods were exactly the same as a K-350. As to the rotating shaft, you might try some penetrating oil and a little patience. Unfortunately, trapped seawater between the outer section and the o-ring often causes some corrosion on the stainless over time (lack of oxygen in there lets that happen). What you could have is anything from your busted o-ring to salt build-up.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Wallace <jonw@psubs.org>
To: personal_submersibles <personal_submersibles@psubs.org>
Sent: Mon, Oct 17, 2011 7:44 pm
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Kittredge Motor Housing help


Looking for help from anyone who has K-sub motor housings per plans.  
I've run into my first issue with the K-600 in that the port fwd 
thruster is binding and won't rotate.  The only thing I can think is 
happening is that the o-rings inside the thru-hull have dislodged and 
are causing the shaft to bind up when I attempt to rotate it.  And I 
mean it is REALLY bound up.  From outside the sub I can barely rotate 
the motor one inch back and forth by grabbing the kort nozzle and head 
of the motor housing, and then man-handling it.  It was rotating fine 
when I brought it home.

So I've got to remove the motor and find out what is going on.  I 
removed the wire harness that attaches to the thru-hull inside the 
cabin, but will need to disconnect those wires before I can try to pull 
the motor and shaft from the thru-hull.  The only way to disconnect 
those wires is to access them inside the motor housing.  So my question 
is; how does the aft part of the motor housing disconnect from the fore 
part of the housing.  There are no bolts, screws, or set screws anywhere 
so it looks like it either pulls apart or the entire after tank head 
unscrews.  Based upon what I can see in the plans, it looks like it 
unscrews but I just want to confirm that so I don't cause any damage.

Attached below is the motor housing drawing from the plans.  I've also 
posted some photos and a description of the issue at
http://www.psubs.org/projects/1234567801/k600portfwdmotor/