nema stepper cable changing / rewiring.. howto?

Hi,
well, this is my first post. Mainly thanks to you, the community, as you always had the specific problem already covered. That helped me out a lot - thank you.

Now I'm facing a problem, and I hope anyone has already a solution for it.
I'd like to rewire my steppers but after disassembling, I noticed that they weren't just connected to a small pcb or something (I don't really know what I expected), but are going deeper inside the stator. I'm afraid I could destroy something if I try to pull the stator out..
Is it possible to rewire such steppers inside or do I have to use shrinking tubing?

I've already googled it (using various combinations of: rewire, change, extend, cable, lead, break, nema, nema17) and haven't been able to find a solution. I found something here: http://www.geneb.org/rostock-max/Rostock-MAX-Assembly-Guide.pdf (in part 12), but that doesn't really fit my need, as I'd like to avoid using connectors.

The reason why I'd like to do this, is simply that the cables are to short and I'd like to have a constant gauge on my wires and I'd prefer not using shrink tubing.

Thanks in advance!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2014 05:45PM by Rotz.

Perhaps would be nice to know which motors you have, or pictures or something. But anyway you only need to open the motor if you have a 5 wire unipolar only motor to which may try to separate the medians, but i guess that is not the case.

If it does not have a connector, you can happily solder the wires to the motor ones and use shrink tubing to cover solder joints. I think its even better than using any connector.

here are some pictures of the motor:

Fully assembled. Four phases and a small part of the coil visible.


Housing disassembled, rotor still inside.


Housing and rotor disassembled.


Housing and rotor disassembled.


I (again, unsuccessfully) tried to get out the stator. Is there a trick to do that or might it be glued to the metal housing of the nema17 motor?

Do you mean to solder the wires outside of the housing? I'd prefer soldering inside (i.e. the cable as a whole), as it would look cleaner and I assume such a rigid connection as a soldering joint would negatively affect longevity of the cable due to the movement.
Also I hoped to get an insight, how to repair the motor in case of lead fracture - im building a prusa i3 with a wades extruder, so the cables would eventually fracture, i guess.

Thank you a lot for your help. If there is any more information you would need, I'd gladly try to provide it.

The wires are stranded multiples of small ones, so they do not fracture, so no worries about wire fracturing or solder joints life.

Yes by soldering the wires i meant outside the motor. Sry if i was not explicit enough on that.