BTW, Terry went through two motors that I know of. Both times he blew the motor bearings. I believe one time was around 16K miles when he was heading to my home to visit and the most recent time was on his trip back to Florida, with something like 29,000 miles on the clock. But his motors no doubt lead a much tougher life and were exposed to much higher loads than any of ours - especially mine. 
Hey Richard the first time was right at 20,000 after my NorCal tour, and it was a motor bearing. But in Florida, almost every mile was with a passenger, and with the size 6 controller for most of it, and way overweighted almost it's entire life, and the RPM limit turned up to 7500 (<--- don't do this! Bad Brandon Miller for talking me into it!), I'd say that's pretty good. I'm used to breaking Yamaha R1's and Kawi ZX-10's, the Zero is a lot more reliable than both of those were. Under normal riding, I'd say the motor would be good for 4-5 times that abuse, maybe more. Or somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 riding miles or more.
The recent problem was my fault. The sprocket bolt was a little loose. I tried to take it off and it turned a few times but the locktite got harder as the bolt came out, and one day with the tools I had couldn't get it out anymore, so I put it back in without getting it all the way tight. After 3000 miles the horizontal movement on the shaft, wore completely through the keyway. Either contact with the swingarm bolt or an off balance shaft due to a non centered sprocket caused the cooling fan clips to come off and to make contact with the motor housing in the back. The motor is fine, just needs a new fan.
At 100 mph .. with 25 tooth front sprocket from the DS as Terry has often used .. it's 7330 RPM. From Terry's photos he apparently rides around at 100 mph all the time, with one hand using his phone to take photos : )
Zero heavily modifies the motors for durability and cooling and likely for higher RPM operation. So I don't know if Terry's motor failures are typical (the most recent one he placed the blame on an improperly installed bolt when he modified the motor sprocket) .. but it's possible that the bearings need to be replaced or repacked every so often.
See above, no not typical. Stock motor is very reliable. Replacing the bearings at 50,000 miles might be good preventative maintenance, but you could just wait for them to start making noise too.
Terry was running the 25 to 132 for a while but for the last time (Vetter Run) it is 28 to 98 so the rotation is much lower now(but the Fan Speed too), but you are right all his load will be a lot more stress as we do. So I would claim the system really reliable.
Exactly.
Ok so I haven't had a glitch in almost a year, maybe 9 months. It was putting in the size 6 controller that fixed it once and for all for me.
My glitches started right away on the warmest days early, and a little later on cooler mornings.
It can be fixed by getting the dealer to make sure the firmware is upgraded, and also having them set the motor offset to be in the center of the vector graph, and calibrating the sine and cosine from the encoder, which once set the new firmware accounts for minor encoder drift.
Why is it worse when the controller gets hot? I don't know. But it is. Perhaps more "noise" on the signal, causing the chance of it being above 4 volts on crest or under 1 volt on trough and therefore out of range. When this happens, the controller faults and cuts out and needs to be reset.
So 1) see the local dealer and get the offset checked. I'm doing a trip up the east coast in a week From Florida to New York, then west to Washington State and have the tools with me to do this if anyone is along my route.
And 2) and what I would really recommend anyway, is to get the size 6 controller upgrade from Hollywood Electrics. From all the people that have had the upgrade, I don't think anyone has had a glitch since. The size 6 controller has a little more thermal capability. Plus you won't be upset with the additional power your new Zero has either!
Or 3) upgrade to a 2013. There are numerous reasons to do this. Blue tooth interface, better brakes, almost double the power and torque, higher voltage battery pack and faster charging, adjustable regen and more? The list goes on and on. I suggest this to whoever can qualify for the upgrade. Perhaps Harlan at Hollywood Electrics, can give you a special deal considering your situation. Anyone interested should call him and talk to him 1 on 1. Unfortunately I don't have his number off hand, but hopefully someone here can post it.
Oh did I say more range and more efficient on the highway? 90 miles vs 60 miles range at freeway speed? If I didn't have thousands of hours modifying my 2012 to be just how I want it, selling my 2012 for a 25-50% loss and upgrading to a new 2013 would be my choice.
Hope that helps!
Terry
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Topic: 2012 S zf6 Motor cutting out (Read 15513 times)