Auto-pop door "Add-A-Motor" D-20 Repair after 7 months

G-Man

Songster
12 Years
Feb 10, 2012
201
11
201
Witter Springs, California
I made an automatic pop door for my coop using the Add-a-Motor D-20 as the engine to lift the door. It worked great for about seven months.

(Construction image)




(Switch that turns the porch light on when closed and off when the door is open)




(Construction image)



(Finished)





Yesterday morning I noticed the porch light I set up on the coop was still on at 8:00 am.. that means the pop door was still closed; very strange.
I tripped the manual switch on the timer & the motor just continued to run.. that meant the "on/off" switch in the motor wasn't being activated..
So after reading the warranty, shaking my head & laughing to myself. I opened the unit & noticed the gear that is used to operate the "fingers" that trip the "on/off" switch that stops the motor and reel from spinning was bouncing around loose in the case. I noticed right away that the plastic post that held the aforementioned gear in place snapped off .. I still haven't determined the cause though.
After digging through my tool box I found a steel 3/32 ejector pin from my machinists days that was very close in diameter to the plastic post that had snapped off.
I just drilled a blind press fit hole where the broken plastic post had been. Cut the pin to length and using some JB Weld I set the new steel pin in place.


Reassembly was straight forward. The D-20 is operating as well as before.


The tip of the screw pointing to where the plastic post was.




The gear and broken plastic post.




The 3/32 ejector pin and after I drilled the blind hole for the pin.




The short piece of ejector pin epoxied in place with JB-Weld




I hope this helps should anyone else encounter problems with their D-20 motor.
 

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