# How to harvest the Tesla LDU's motor?



## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

This supposedly uses the Tesla motor from an LDU:








The Tesla LDU stator casing is welded to its drive gear case half. So I'm curious how they would harvest the stator casing to do this or did they make a new casing and drop the Tesla stator into it?

Anyone ever pulled a stator out of an LDU (they had a stator pulled out in the Lucid Air motor Youtube video)? What's involved? What's holding it in place?


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## Roadstercycle (Jun 26, 2019)

Yes, It is a Tesla LDU with stator housing reattached in the back with a custom billet housing with cooling, there is also a custom billit cable holder on top. The front is a planetary gear reduction unit that is between the the Tesla output shaft and the u-joint coupler. Quite a nice unit but unfortunately the price is a hefty one. Last I heard it was north of $35,000. I think it's closer to $40,000 now. Art is not cheap and it is a beautiful piece of art.


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

There's a lot of work in pulling that stator housing off, which is why I was wondering if it was harvested or if they made a new one. I don't think anyone here could do it for less than $20-25k.

That's the stock Tesla inverter in what you're calling the back.

I knew what the pieces were - I was asking if anyone has pulled the stator out of its case, and whether they discombobulated the welded stator housing from the gearcase.

One of our members here cut the case and cleverly attached a sprocket to the intermediate shaft, but has anyone pulled the stator out of the housing, like this (snapped from the Lucid Air video):










If so, what's involved?


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## Roadstercycle (Jun 26, 2019)

I totally misunderstood your question. I have not seen anyone pull a stator yet. Share if you find one please.


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## Mojave (Dec 4, 2019)

We needed to make a LDU for a show display and were not keen on lugging around a complete LDU. Even after it had been gutted it was still heavy as all hell because the stator was firmly placed in the case with no discernable way to get it out. We ultimately took it to a machine shop and paid them to cut the damn thing out. I think they literally had to grind it to bits. It was successful in the end, the now hollow LDU was reassembled and appears complete but can be moved/lifted by a single person.

There may be a way to get it out but we tried mighty hard to get the stator out of the motor case but ended up resorting to barbaric methods.


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## brian_ (Feb 7, 2017)

Stators are normally pressed into their housings and not removable without destroying the housing, so my guess is that the housing is new. It would be interesting to hear what was done here.


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

Slitting saw on a Bridgeport is all I can think of. 

Not sure if heating the aluminum can would work.


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## piotrsko (Dec 9, 2007)

Gonna get warm during operation, so just a press fit will eventually slip. Probably some other method like a keyway or machined step in there, too.


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## brian_ (Feb 7, 2017)

piotrsko said:


> Gonna get warm during operation, so just a press fit will eventually slip. Probably some other method like a keyway or machined step in there, too.


That makes sense.

The HVH (High Voltage Hairpin) series currently from BorgWarner has always been available as a complete motor or as a "core" to be installed in a housing. The Parker GVM series is available both ways, too (with the one without a housing called the "kit version"), and has extensive technical information available in the catalog. If anyone is interested, they might try looking at how those stators are installed in housings.

The GVM catalog includes a note that


> The motor has to be shrinked in the customer housing by Parker
> Parker will support the customer to determine part dimensions


and the drawings don't show any external keying features that I can see, but it's only a catalog.

So stators may be shrink-fit in their aluminum housings, not pressed in. I probably should have said that stators are "an interference fit in their housings", rather than "pressed into their housings".


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

That's an interesting exercise, given the stator tube is welded into the gearcase at one end. The whole thing needs to be baked.

The Tesla stators are fed coolant from the middle of the lamination stack on the Plaid stator I have pictured, above. I think the Model S stator coolant is end fed and collected.


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

FYI, the closest "where to buy" for Parker EV motors is Germany, using a left coast USA address 🤦‍♂️


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## piotrsko (Dec 9, 2007)

Either method yeilds similar results although the heat the casing then press might end up being tighter because press fit tolerances used to be .001 cold. Did some of that in space applications, but always included a mechanical stop like pinning, welding, stop bolts or step and notch. 20 G vibration does weird stuff during launch not to mention odd temperature differences of space between dissimilar metals

Might be serious overkill in a earth bound vehicle


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

I don't remember what lead me down this rabbit hole, but seems it was pondered back in the early days, by @eldis, as well.



eldis said:


> I'm 100% sure that the water is flowing through the rotor. It enters through the rear side of the motor - that's where the water jacket for it is. Looking on the thing again, most likely on the gearbox side (on the spline side) the water is not going anywhere else, just returning internally through channels in the shaft back the the rear of the motor. This is not easy to judge very well. It would make sense to have only one entry/exit point for the rotor cooling, as making such seal must be really difficult.
> 
> The motor outer case is welded to the gearbox - look on the pictures. So they most likely insert the stator windings with this external case on the gearbox and then weld it around. Not sure if you can extract the stator out from the case without grinding off the motor-gearbox weld.
> 
> ...


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## GrayRaceCat (Jul 13, 2021)

remy_martian said:


> This supposedly uses the Tesla motor from an LDU:
> View attachment 132802
> 
> The Tesla LDU stator casing is welded to its drive gear case half. So I'm curious how they would harvest the stator casing to do this or did they make a new casing and drop the Tesla stator into it?
> ...


I've seen that before. But I can't recall where or who made it, do you know?


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