Delta 14" Bandsaw Resilient Ring Mishap

I have a so-called Platinum Delta 14" band saw 28-263 that I bought some years ago at an auction. The other week it started dogging during the cut. I didn't immediately realize what had happened. But after spending probably 40 minutes cutting I got tired of having to keep letting the motor regain it's speed. When I decided to change the blade even though it still felt sharp to my hand I decided to open the base. What I found was surprising. The motor was hanging by the belt. What had happed was that the resilient ring which holds the motor to the mount broke through the casing for some reason. But it didn't even make a sound to let me know that something had changed.


Anyway I looked around to find a replacement resilient ring and from everything I had read they were supposed to be a real pain to install and everyone was saying that if you used a screwdriver you were going to shorten it's life. That left me looking for some alternate method of sliding on the ring and pushing back the tabs which were rubber so it could go onto the motor. It seemed like I would need something like a metal or plastic piece, something smooth to prevent hanging, that was literally the size of the resilient ring with the tabs removed on the one end and a somewhat smaller side to get it started to slide it up onto the motor. Turned out that was not an easy thing to find and wood would have to be something that was very slippery from some type coating to prevent the rubber ring tabs from hanging. I looked at plumb bobs they were the closet thing I could think of that might work except mine wasn't the right size and it would have to have the round top cut flat to mate up against the motor. I finally decided the hell with it's longevity this was proving to just be a pita. I sat down and just used my fingers and literally had it installed in maybe 3 minutes.

When I went to remount the motor I found out it didn't fit the motor mount. The mount has 2 prongs that go around the resilient rings on each side. But the width was different. The motor was shorter than the mount. The motor appeared original and the motor mount as well and so I torqued the motor across the mount by pulling it towards the side that had failed. Because of the rubber rings it had enough play to allow me to get it on both sides of the mount but as soon as I started the bandsaw up the new resilient ring exploded. I assumed that since it had worked with the setup in it that it must be correct and therefore went forward,.

So I got the second resilient ring and installed it and as I was trying to mount the motor it ended like the photo below. The rubber literally came out of the ring on the side that was still attached. That was when I decided not to blow up another one and see if I could get some answers.




I decided to measure the mount and the motor and what I found out was I have 1/2" difference between the 2 parts. That didn't seem right to me and so I contacted Delta tech support to find out if something was wrong. However, what I found out was tech support just referred me to their service centers. There are 2 within an hours drive from me both in opposite directions but they suggested that I call first and so I did. The first one said we fix motors. I said so you can't sell me or get me a part or even specs? We service motors and I've told Delta that time and again. OK so maybe just a bad situation. I called the 2nd place. I was transferred 4 times to some guy that supposedly had some understanding of their role with Delta. He told me that as far as he knew that Delta had gone out of business. Again I asked so you don't have any parts in bins, diagrams or specifications in binders, etc,? We don't have anything in fact we don't even sell Delta. OK.. So I learned that Delta, although it had apparently had some type of contract in place for these firms has never visited any of them and gave them a list of expectations as to how they wanted their customers treated or how many parts they should be maintaining etc. I reported all this back to Delta tech support suggesting that they probably should be telling these companies what they expected from them but now that they knew there was no resolutions coming from them I needed to get the specs on the length of the motor and the mount from them. But they told me they don't have any specifications available to them. How on God's green earth did they ever become the company they once were and not have a single exploded part diagram or parts being manufactured for replacement or specifications for torqueing bolts that hold motors?

Sorry about the "story" but I'm so frustrated and I don't really know how to resolve this other than to do what I think is correct and taking the mount which is one solid piece and having it cut down the middle extracting 1/2" to match the motor and then having it welded back together which at a machine shop is probably going to be maybe $150.. I would just feel better about doing this fix if someone out there could tell me that they should both be the same length because they checked their own machine. Of course that would require dismounting the motor from the mount to find out. I mean they could have purposely made them so that the torqueing across the larger mount was part of the noise silencing theory but I don't want to do such a radical change to the mount and then find out that no other motor will fit because they can't even tell me if I have the right motor or the right mount. Maybe I should get a replacement motor with more HP instead assuming that the motor which is a Delta motor was replaced incorrectly already.

Anyone out there a Delta specialist that doesn't work for Delta?