Page 9 - December 2020 Track N Times

OPERATIONS UPDATES

Just a Cover By Jeffrey Leadstrom, Manager Fleet Maintenance

Loram spends over a million dollars each year in Grinding Motors! That’s just motor cost, not to mention shipping
and time spent handling grinding motors. We ship, handle and haul around hundreds of grinding motors each year.
We push, pull, roll and drag these motors from truck beds into storage coffins. We then handle them again, from
the coffin, to the location on the machine where the motor needs to be changed. We use come-alongs and pry bars
and other methods to get them installed. To say the least, we beat the crap out these motors just to get them to
the location where we are going to install them. With that being said there are some important, simple things you
can to do so the removed motor can be rebuilt and live to “grind” again.

All our old motors end up at L&S Electric to be evaluated and potentially rebuilt. A ton of time, effort and re-
sources are exhausted just getting old motors to the rebuild center. Often poor handling of the motor results in
scrapping good cores. Recently there have been too many that we’ve had to scrap because of rust inside the motor.
The only way for a sealed motor to get rust inside is from water ingress, this is usually seen when the motors are
handled, stored or shipped back without junction box covers installed.

Here are 2 simple things that YOU can do when handling grind motors.
1. Leave the junction box cover plate on the new motor until it is ready to be wired up. This will keep debris and
water out of the motor during storage and the installation process.
2. Install the cover plate on the old motor as soon as it is removed from service. If you are installing a rebuilt grind
motor the cover and gasket can be removed from the RB motor and installed onto the old motor. New grind
motors come with the manufacture cover that can be used to cover the junction box on the old motor or use
Loram part number 132244, which is spared on your machines. If none of these options are available, at a mini-
mum put some duct tape over the junction box.
 A grinding motor MUST have a junction box cover plate installed any time that it is not in service in a grinding
module.

So, to answer the question – It’s just a cover? Yes, it’s just a cover. A simple stamped piece of metal with some
bolt holes in it. But it’s more important than you think. If you are going through all the effort of shipping a motor
back, do your part by installing “just the cover”.

Thanks you.

Page 7 DECEMBER 2020