Cleaning Tips for Servo Motors

If your servo motors aren’t working properly, you may not need to have them repaired or replaced. The problem could be a cleaning issue. For example, material worn off the potentiometer may mix with grease, causing it to become conductive and disrupt the signal that tells the servo motor how to change position.

A simple and cost-effective solution could be to just clean the motor. Here are some servo cleaning tips if you want to try this solution with your malfunctioning servo motor.

Servo Cleaning Tips – Servo Motor Cleaning Steps

1. Start by opening up the servo motor. Gently bend the tabs holding the case together just enough to get them past the tabs. You’ll need to be patient and careful, but this shouldn’t be too difficult. This will expose the parts of the servo motor, which include the copper contact, the small gears, the large gear with the potentiometer and, of course, the motor.
2. The potentiometer is a disc with conductive charcoal stripes around it. You will see that the potentiometer is coated with grease. You want to clean off the grease that has been touching the copper contact. You will be able to identify this part from the grooves in the grease where the contact has touched it.
3. Using a paper towel, simply wipe off any contaminated grease, while leaving the clean grease intact, since the motor needs this grease to function.
4. Then wipe any dirty grease off the copper contact. Be careful not to press too hard — you do not want to damage the copper contact.
5. Once you have cleaned off all the dirty grease, transfer some of the clean grease onto the part of the disk you wiped off. This completes the cleaning procedure.

After Cleaning the Servo Motor

1. The only remaining step is to close up the motor. Be sure to position the gear with the potentiometer so that the arm attached is pointing away from the electrical connector on the other side of the case.
2. Hold the arm in place and gently push the halves back together until the case snaps back into place.
3. Put the servo motor back into operation and see if it functions normally. If it does, fantastic!

If not, unfortunately, your servo motor probably needs a more extensive repair. There are many reasons why a servo motor can go wrong, and a need for cleaning is just one. During regular use, parts of the servo motor can become worn out or even break, requiring replacement.

If you should need professional servo motor repair, Global Electronic Services can help. We have extensive experience repairing all manner of motors and other electronics, we will replace any parts in danger of wearing out, and we offer an 18-month in-service warranty. In addition, because we know that downtime can be extremely costly for any business, we complete virtually all repairs in five days or less, even faster if necessary. For a free quote on repairs now, contact Global Electronic Services today.