There is a piece of 1/8" square keystock that locks the gear on the motor to the motor shaft. I asked Mike Senna if he could spot-weld the piece of keystock to the shaft at the very end of the keystock/shaft, and he said yes. So, off come the feet once again.
Mike got right to work doing the welding. Evidently Mike considers prescription eyeglasses to be sufficient eye protection. (At least I think he closes his eyes.)
If those pieces of keystock ever want to come out, I'll have to grind them out a bit first.
I also brought over my old motors. We were wondering how much the brushes had worn down, so Mike opened up one of the motors to take a look. It turned out there was still quite a bit of material left on the carbon brushes. Enough that they did not warrant replacing for now.
We also inspected other areas of the motor, and they looked good as well.
Once that was done, there was the tricky matter of closing the motor back up. The brushes are spring-loaded, so they must be drawn back into their housings before the cover is replaced. I don't know how NPC manufacturing does it, but this is how Mike does.
After closing the motor back up, Mike tested it in both directions, and it worked fine. We didn't bother opening the other old motor, as it should look pretty much the same.
Once I got home, I put the new motors back onto the drivetrains and got the droid back together.
The new motors are somewhat noisier than the old ones. Mike thinks that once the brushes have conformed to the shape of the commutator, the motors will be quieter. As to whether the new motors are quicker than the old ones, that may just be me hallucinating, although I may try to measure the speed of both old and new motors.
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