Repair Spin Mop or Magic Mop

14 December 2010

Introduction

Magic mop or 360 degree mop are spin mops. The earlier model has a foot pedal with gearing system that will spin the cage as the pedal is being “pumped”. This article will describe how to repair this kind of spin mop.





How Spin Mop works?

The spin mop has a set of gearing system. When the pedal is stepped on, it will spin the centrifugal cage. The heart of the system is a “one way bearing” that allow the force to be transmit to the shaft of the centrifugal cage.

This bearing has about 8 small little needle bearings in it that are arranged to “lock” the gear to the shaft whenever a force is applied to turn the gear. As soon as the force is removed or when one stops the pedal “pumping”, the needle bearings will “unlock” themselves, allowing the centrifugal cage to continue spinning freely with the “one way bearing” now acting as a normal bearing. The animation of the “one way bearing” can be found here


What Can Go Wrong?

After some use, these little needle bearings will wear out and no longer able to “lock” the gearing system to the shaft of the centrifugal cage. The centrifugal cage will stop spinning.

What can be done?

a) Dismantle the gearing mechanism

1. Unscrew the 4 screws that attach the gearing block from the pail

2. Remove the small pinion gear that is attached to the shaft

3. Remove the "one way bearing" by knocking the old one out

4. Replace the “one way bearing”. Check to rotate the shaft by hand to ensure the correct direction of the bearing before inserting the bearing. The “one way bearing” will not work if it is inserted in the wrong direction.
5. Re-assemble the gearing block.