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Sparrow Brush Inspection

My Sparrow has been noisy lately, and other people have had trouble with brushes long before 15,000 miles. The web version of the sparrow manual says, "Every two to five years the brushes in the motor will need to be replaced." Having my Sparrow for 6 years, it seemed like it was time to replace my brushes.

I started out using the photos the service bulletin Davide Andrea posted in Svr04Mtr.pdf. My Sparrow is a little different than Davide's.

A view of the door-side of the Sparrow.

The rear wheel of the Sparrow has been jacked up, and a cinder block has been slid under the motor, and then the Sparrow was jacked back down to let the motor just touch the cinder block.
The motor mount has been unbolted from the body. There are locking nuts on the back side that have to be removed.
I removed the skirt from the far side , and push the rear wheel away a few inches to expose the motor mount.

In this picture the motor mount has been removed. The aluminum end of the motor has been exposed. The red ring around the motor is the fiberglass cover that allows air to flow from the "trunk". The red color comes from the glue that was used to seal out dirt.

This is a picture of the motor cover. The orange-red lines are the glue that was holding it on. There is also a little latch.

The motor, without its cover.

This is a picture of the brushes. Using a mirror I checked that they are all there, and all wearing evenly. It looks like they could wear another half an inch before the spring stops applying any pressure. If it took 15K miles to wear away a tenth of an inch, the brushes might be good for another 75K miles.

Checking the brushes is somewhat less work than replacing a belt.

	A view of the door-side of the Sparrow. The rear wheel of the Sparrow has been jacked up, and a cinder block has been slid under the motor, and then the Sparrow was jacked back down to let the motor just touch the cinder block. The motor mount has been unbolted from the body. There are locking nuts on the back side that have to be removed. I removed the skirt from the far side , and push the rear wheel away a few inches to expose the motor mount.
	In this picture the motor mount has been removed. The aluminum end of the motor has been exposed. The red ring around the motor is the fiberglass cover that allows air to flow from the "trunk". The red color comes from the glue that was used to seal out dirt.
	This is a picture of the motor cover. The orange-red lines are the glue that was holding it on. There is also a little latch.
	The motor, without its cover.
	This is a picture of the brushes. Using a mirror I checked that they are all there, and all wearing evenly. It looks like they could wear another half an inch before the spring stops applying any pressure. If it took 15K miles to wear away a tenth of an inch, the brushes might be good for another 75K miles.