Electric window motor for snowblower help.

[Jim Morrell]

Hello,

I am going to try and attatch a couple electric window motors from a car to my front end snowblower on my Kubota B7610. The one to turn the chute I think I have figrued out by pinning a s.s. tube over the shaft of the motor and running the other end into the tube where the manual crank goes and bolting that end together. The problem I'm having is comming up with and idea to tilt the deflector up and down. Right now I'm thinking of welding flat bar on each side of a threaded rod, drilling thru it and pinning it to the second motor which will be mounted on the solid part of the chute. The upper part that moves, the deflector I was thinking of having a fixed nut that the threaded rod will pass thru. I'm not sure the deflector will follow the curve it needs to if I mount it like this. Any ideas or pictures of what I could do here would be a big help.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[Zebrafive]

If your chute deflector is spring loaded to stay up, a cord attached to it and a drum on the motor. Run the motor one way and the cord wraps on the drum pulling the shut down. Run the opposite way and the cord unwinds and the spring moves the chute up. You just have to figure out what size drum you need for the motor and how to mount it. Too big and the chute moves too fast.

 

[sparc]

Maybe you could give us a pic or two of what you have to work with. For me, its tough to envision the possibilities not being familiar with your model tractor or snowblower.

 

[600rider]

I mounted a window motor to the deflector before and actually used the metal arm that the motor drives to raise the window and it worked great. If you know what car you got the motor from then that is the best option. On my snow blower I have now I used a linear actuator to position the deflector, it works much better! I bought it on Ebay for about 15 or 20 bucks. Ken. W8N4-SNO!

 

[Jim Morrell]

No spring, just a couple knobs I have to get off the tractor to loosen before moving the deflector and retightening them back up.
Thats a good idea though if it was spring tensioned. Thanks

 

[Jim Morrell]

I dont have any pics yet but thanks for the reply. Its just a regular chute and the deflector is moved by loosening the bolts then tightening them back up when you find the desired position.

 

[Jim Morrell]

I dont have the arm out of the car and I guess if I cant figure out a way to use the motor I have then the linear actuator might be the solution. Do you have a couple pics you could send me of the set up you have? I'm going to check ebay for one now. Ok just looked on ebay and wow am I now confused, is there a certain type of linear actuator that is best, length, weight rating, speed, etc.... Most seem to be $50 and up if I'm looking at the right ones, hope I can get my little freebie motor to work lol.

Thanks

Jim

 

[herringchoker]

Jim, your idea about the threaded rod and nut sounds good in theory. You would have to mount the nut on a pivot so that the rod would not bind in it as its position changes. (The motor end should also pivot.) The speed would depend on the motor's RPM and threads per inch on the rod and nut. You may need to protect the rod and nut (motor, too) from ice and snow buildup. You are building a linear actuator!

 

[Al 2]

I'm not sure if the window motor will have enough power for all instances. I used a cheap 1500 lb winch turn my shute and had problems if the ice got built up around the shute. Make sure to clean it off after you use it if it isn't in a heated garage. Search Google and You Tube and you will come up with many more ideas and suggestions. Window motors are a great little power source and I would like to see a thread started listing some of the things or projects they have been used for.

Al

 

[turnkey4099]

No spring, just a couple knobs I have to get off the tractor to loosen before moving the deflector and retightening them back up.
Thats a good idea though if it was spring tensioned. Thanks

That's the way my walk behind operates. Spring pulls it full up, lever pulls it down to the desired position.

Harry K

 

[puckgrinder85]

Mine too, a rod connected to the top part of the chute slides through a washer on the bottom part of the chute and the spring rides on the rod to keep it in alignment.

 

[600rider]

I have used a window motor for many years to both rotate the chute and to deflect the snow and in my opinion they work best if you have the two wire motors and just reverse polarity so you don't need a dedicated ground. Also the rotation motor works best if you have the newer cable less type chute that has the screw that rotates the chute. That being said I used one on a cable type for years also! I will try to get pics for you tomorrow!I might have the window arm part from previous application. I will look tomorrow also. If I do you may have it for the price to ship it to Maine!

 

[Jim Morrell]

What I had planned is to weld round rod to both sides of the nut traveling the threaded rod. The brackets on the part of the deflector that moves will have a long slot just wider than the round rod welded on the nut. Im hoping that the round rod will push forward the deflector as it travels up the long slots of the brackets on either side of the nut and also allow the nut to pivot slightly as the deflector moves along the arc. The motor side I was thinking of mounting rigid, but mabey if I leave the bolts loose and allow the motor to tilt as the rod moves might work better?

 

[Jim Morrell]

Thanks, I will keep an eye on the ice build up and I agree about a thread about projects with the little motors.

 

[Jim Morrell]

Yeah the snowblower is the newer front mounted type only about 8 years old with the screw rotation. How did you use the window arm part along with the motor? I cant seem to picture it in my mind. Would love to see pictures if you have time. Thanks

 

[600rider]

I looked for the window regulator arm but could not find it. Here is a pic of the part I am talking about. it is the arced part with the "teeth" on it and I removed it from the rest of the regulator and welded it to the deflector and bolted the motor to the chute.

On my newer snowblower I used the linear actuator, here are the pics of that.

here are the pics of how I used a window motor to rotate my chute I put a small piece of round stock in the tube part with the screw on it and attached a love-joy coupling to that and the motor to connect the two.I have had it for 8 years and no problems! I do keep my tractor in a garage so all snow melts off but my old tractor I kept in an unheated garage but swept all snow off after each use.

 

[600rider]

I think I miss spoke when I said I got the linear actuator on Ebay. I am sure I got it from Surplus Center and also got the mount kit for it.

 

[600rider]

I went out to the garage yesterday and found my old chute of the snow blower and it had the lift arm part on it so I took some pics for ya. I remember that I had to mount the motor in a trial and error type test. The motor I mounted so that the deflector would not contact it in it's swing travel then held the "tooth bracket" and rotated it to make sure it had enough travel to move the deflector which wasn't too hard. I purchased a front mount for my Kubota B7510 from a dealer that quit selling Kubota he had it in the show room and could not return "whole good" so I got it at a great discount it came with the chute and rotation screw so I converted my older blower to the newer setup and no longer use the old chute.

 

[Jim Morrell]

Thanks for the pics! Still working on welding and fabbing some parts to try and make this work, mabey I will have a working model by summer lol.

 

[JohninCT]

Jim, your idea about the threaded rod and nut sounds good in theory. You would have to mount the nut on a pivot so that the rod would not bind in it as its position changes. (The motor end should also pivot.) The speed would depend on the motor's RPM and threads per inch on the rod and nut. You may need to protect the rod and nut (motor, too) from ice and snow buildup. You are building a linear actuator!

Yep you are reinventing the wheel so to speak, but you work with what you have available. I agree with pivot on both ends. Weld a shark fin on the back of your chute and drill a hole in it. Weld on a bolt or drill a hole thru a piece of pipe and use a bolt for the pivot at the fin. Weld the nut on the other end of the pipe. Screw your threaded rod into the nut and drive it with the window motor. Fabricate a pivoting bracket to mount the motor on and you have your linear actuator. The pipe will protect the threaded rod. You can add a grease fitting to it too if you wanted. You could also slide a larger dia pipe over to protect the threaded rod lower section when its extended.

Or, you could just buy a linear actuator and just have to fabricate the attachment brackets at each end. Might be simpler and even cheaper in the long run.