For sale: drive motor from early/mid 80's Baker FTD-110 36/48 volt forklift

Motor body is approx 11.75 inches by 15.5 inches (not counting drive/tail shaft). Weight is approx 230 lbs.

NOTE: this motor is no longer available. It has moved on and found a home in someone else's conversion.

Click here to learn about the motor and other components we ended up using in our conversion. Or carry on and read about the traction motor that was too big to fit in our Geo Metro (which is why it was put up for sale)...

Click to zoom in on these images.

April 9/07:

Above: tag on the forklift

Above - CE detail: showing seat/safety brake, still in the forklift

Above: removed, on driveway. Jaw-type coupler on DE.

Above: drive motor tag (I think this is just a service tag)


-

Other things stamped on the drive motor:
... U-12784
... 10 / 23
... 80459
... and possibly a logo: a capital "C" with what looks like a capital "H" inside it

Above: brushes / commutator with service plate removed

Above: commutator end cap

Above: armature

Drive end

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 12/07:

Above: body, field windings

Above: brushes close-up

Above: commutator close-up

Above: Act now, and we'll throw in this matching coupler - free!

Seriously: the square shaft on the end of the motor is unusual - most people look for round shafts to use a taperlock type coupler in their motor/flywheel/input shaft adapter. You can have a regular shaft pressed into the armature of the motor. The way of the ForkenSwift however, would be to mod this coupler that came with the motor to make up a suitable adapter.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 13/07:

I tracked down the company (Stanford Electric Rebuilders Ltd of Toronto) whose tag is on the motor and asked if they kept their old work orders. Here's what they said:

Here is the work done to the motor in question covered by W/O # 11928.

Disassembly, inspection, overhaul, fields coils remove, clean, dry, insulate, varnish & cure. Armature clean, dry, varnish, cure, machine commutator & balance. All housings clean & paint. Replace bearings, brushes, springs & hardware. Reassemble & test.

Thanks
Nick

The motor likely did not see much service after '02. We've had the motor for 1 year now, and it was probably parked in the company's indoor "forklift graveyard" (leaky hydraulics) for 6-12 months before we bought it. Which means probably little more than 3 years of use after the motor was refurb'ed. Kind of like doing a hip replacement on a 98 year-old, if you know what I mean.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update: April 25/07:

The Motor Guru has spoken.

I heard back from Jim Husted of Hi-Torque Electric, resident motor expert of the EVDL, who graciously looked at the pictures of the motor and offered this report:

All and all, motor looks good. [...]

Good and bad points: The square shaft is a bad point as is the fact it's kinda big for an average daily and adds a lot of extra weight to a convertion. That shaft would be a bear to press out and as memory serves me they BANG out at close to 50 ton, scary sh!# actually 8^o

I've never seen that motor but know it's cousin the Baker 9044-Y4. From what I can see the only diference is the Y4 had 3 wires per slot and had more comm bars than your armature, which makes your rated for a higher voltage being the Y4 was rated at just 36 volts OEM. The Y4's were a good harty motor and that might make a really great medium voltage race motor if you EVer decide to make your mark on NEDRA 8^)

On a good note the motor looks good. You could probably run this 120 volts easily although you'll have to advance the timing. As I stated above who knows maybe this sucker would take much higher if ya wanted to race her 8^) FT runs a 12 volt 6" Prestolite motor at 120 volts on FrakenDragon, course the motor ain't real happy bout it, LMAO 8^o

---

So to sum up... Good points:

• good overall condition
• solid construction
• recent refurbishing: incl. new bearings, brushes, resurfaced comm, balancing
• capable of 120 volts "easily" (with brush advancing)
• already removed & ready to ship!

Bad points:

• heavy construction - not really suitable for a lightweight, fwd conversion
• square shaft (but - don't forget - the matching coupler is included for you to adapt for your purposes. Or, as Jim mentions, you can have the shaft pressed out by a motor shop and a round one inserted.)

Price ...

Based on info provided by Jim and another EVDL member familiar with forklift motors used in conversions: $350 US is the asking price.

Compare to new prices, or even used "brand" name motors from ADC or Netgain.

One final tidbit: when we bought the forklift, the technician who showed it to us said, "that motor alone would cost $2k (CDN) to replace." (Take that with a grain of salt - he was after all trying to sell us a used forklift! :-) ) When we bought the forklift for $500 CDN, the technician told us: you're basically paying for that drive motor. The price was going to be the same whether we took just the motor, or the whole forklift.

Shipping, of course, is extra.