shimming a novak 5800?

[ElectricThunder]

Ok, I absolutely HATE the play in the shaft. It's a PITA to set up gear mesh and get the pinion to sit right, so I "shimmed" it with some spare plastic/teflon shims I had laying around. Is this ok to do? There's almost no play in the shaft anymore, and runs nice and smoothly, this won't harm anything will it, and will it help to keep the rotor in the magnetic field? Thanks ya'll!

[SpEEdyBL]

The newer novaks come with two shims in addition to the brass spacers. So it's definately ok to add ships. CharlieS said that they actually increase both the bearing life and the timing of the motor.

[ElectricThunder]

I added the shims to the pinion side, is that the side they come on now? Also do you know if it matters whether or not they're brass or tef/plastic spacers?

[kufman]

I think the material is fine as long as you don't use something ferromagnetic (steel). Brass, copper, and teflon are fine.

[SpEEdyBL]

Both spacers came on the pinion side. It doesn't matter what material spacer you use, since there shouldn't be any friction.

[ElectricThunder]

I was more worried about it shorting, and thanks both of ya'll! I noticed that there is a slight change in power or something after shimming. It seems to have more oomph. Maybe it's just cause I haven't ran it for 2 weeks. :confused: I like the fact that the friggin pinion stays where it's supposed to in relation to the spur though!:D

[viper7016]

Electric Thunder - What size shims did you use? I was going to buy some teflon motor shims (8 - .01 shims and 4 - .005 shims) thanx for the help

[ElectricThunder]

Come to think of it, I'm not really sure.. They were just spares I found laying around. One is probably a .005 and the other is probably a .01? or something like that. Sorry I can't quite remember. Just experiment with a bunch of .01s and see where that gets you. :o

Edit: Just got an idea, you can try contacting novak to see what they used to fix their shaft wiggle (I think I heard somewhere they actually fixed it on more current models).

[SpEEdyBL]

I think the reason why the shims give the motor better timing is because it moves the rotor closer to the sensors.

[viper7016]

ok, thank-you