Warning: People Claiming "Tackleberry" Motors For PTW
 

Recently, a buddy of mine bought a tan PTW out of the classifieds here. It was listed as having a "Tackleberry" motor. When I got the gun to give it a once-over, I noticed that it did not in fact have a motor done by Centurion Services in Poole, England. This is Tackleberry, there is no other, and only motors done by him can be called that.

I have seen this a few times now, either people have no godddamned clue what they are talking about, or they were told it by some hipster with a soldering iron claiming to be offering this service, when in fact it is not the case. Up until 2009 or so, Tack posted up a quick fix on the PTW forums, but since then, as trial and error has taught, this is no longer done. Instead, a rewind is done. You can tell it has been done, as the top motor shown below has lashing and epoxy over the windings between the armature core and the commutator. The bottom motor was the one listed as being a "Tackleberry", and it is most certainly not. The motor shown atbthe top simply has a rewound armtaure installed in its original structure.

I have sent perhaps 30-40 motors to England to be redone over the years, so I have seen exactly what was done, and how they are marked upon return. To avoid counterfeiters hoping to make a profit (I know a couple places guys claim to have this done in Canada, and all are bogus), I will not show the specific markings Tack uses to denote polarity during reassembly. You can send me a pic of your motor if you have suspicions and I will confirm it for you.

I would hazard a guess that perhaps 90% or more of the motors sold as being "Tackleberry" in Canada are nothing of the sort. A motor new from England straight from Centurion should cost you $450 or more, depending on exchange. A rewind and motor service about $250.

Caveat Emptor.

so many ads have this listed, its starting to become something that people just say in hopes to sell their ptws,

Yeah It was kind of the too good to be true thing (seeing people selling rewounded tacked motor for <$200)

as always i can confirm with mcgyver...i've had 3 motors rewound *sent to tackleberry via mcgyver*....its freakin expensive

Brad is too nice a guy he actually managed to refrain himself from outing PTW techs and retailers who are making these claims.

I had two A&K PTWs in for repair with claimed tack mod motors purchased from recently.

Also FYI repairing a broken clone PTW is more expensive than buying a new one.

If I was Tackleberry I would start to serialize every motor thats been modified and put it in a database,

It would be an administrative nightmare and create another level of work for a fellow in high demand.

His markings are distinctive and unmistakable.

Problem may be the owner as well.
They get their motor sent for a local quick fix, get it back and just assume it's been tack'd just because it was dead and now it works.

Either way, I warn everyone to be very careful about what you're claiming. You're actively scamming someone out of $250 if the motor hasn't actually been tack'd.

A lot of people don't have time to 'sponge' on the forums and find out what the hoopla is regarding these mods, so they just do like GBBR said and mention that it's been fixed/modded.

I can't overly blame them - being a noob myself I'm sure there's tons more for me to learn, but agree 100% people have to be really truthful to sell to this crowd, where so many people know every nook & cranny lol

There are "other" mods/fixes that are not the same thing. Also, there are a few people who do rewinds, but whatever it is you have, unless it was done by Tack, it isn't a Tack motor.

so if our motors have been worked on and are not tackleberry what should we call it? I just say "motor mod" whenever ive sold them as the motor has had work done on it. Should we standardize what the difference is to make it easier for people to distinguish?

Odds are that a motor that has been worked on will fail in the same manner as the unmodified ones, just maybe a little later. I have had unmodified motors last 200,000 rounds, and modified ones fail after 1/2 mag.

If it has been rewound, serviced and marked by Tackleberry, call it what it is. If not, it is nothing, just a standard motor, and worth about as much.

Hmm.... If Tack dies, then modified motors becomes a lost art? Are there more people able to do this. Maybe Tack can offer training and have a team of certified techs around the world while he is still alive.

Why bother?
It's not like a mysterious veiled art or anything, it's just rewinding a motor. You just need to know what the hell you're doing.
Unfortunately, the people with such information tend to make way more money in their day jobs, so they have no desire to do tedious and time consuming motor mods. Like Mac for example.
I'm going to get into doing re-winds, just have to build my tooling first. Just been too busy lately.

There are others, including a guy in Vancouver. I can definately stand by Tackleberry's work as outstanding. He's the benchmark of knowing what the hell he's doing.

DTT mod = having your motor cage lathed out to increase its life expectancy. This is a very temporary fix to the original issue.

Tack mod = armature rewinding to solve the factory big picture problem. Properly done, it's quite amazing.

You can say; "I have had my motor rewound", or "I have gotten the motor mod", but saying Tack mod is what it is, and isn't what it isn't. Him being involved or not.

I modified my hop-up by smashing the shit out of it on the side of my house, severely decreasing its performance. I think I'll sell it, and call it the "MacGuyver mod", to sell it easier.