BT3000 belt and motor replacement questions.

[RRS_BT3000]

Hello, I'm new here, just hunting for info for fixing up my Ryobi BT3000 that I bought new ~15+ years ago. A little background info. My saw doesn't get use a lot, I'm more of a metal fabricator, but I do some home remodeling and handyman wood projects. Last year or so using my table saw more, and the blade up and down movement got hard. I knew there was an issue with the mechanism, and just used a j hook to catch the motor arbor to assist lifting and lowering so I wouldn't ruin any sliding parts. I burned out the motor trying to rip an 8' 5/4 deck board thickness (not board width), 1-1/2" deep, probably from the motor holder deflecting and binding of the blade. I've already bought a new used motor off of Ebay, and new shims for both the 3000 and 3100 from ereplacement parts. Ereplacement parts doesn't show different part #'s for Guide holder for both 3000 & 3100, so I thought I'd try the newer style shims for the 3100, since mine seemed to disappear as I never remember them falling out.
So I can tell you that the 3000 guide holder doesn't work, it needs to be milled to fit new thicker shims. The guy that sold me the motor assembly is sending the 3000 guide holder that he didn't send with motor, to machine down. I've been searching google, here and Youtube and find bits and pieces of what I want, but not everything. I went to the BT3 FAQ and not all of the links work.
I joined the forum just to see if there are archives that a user/member can get to that the casual onlooker can't. The threaded rod that raises and lowers motor on the new used assembly I just got is worn a lot more than my motor bracket and seems to bind a bit. So I want to put the motor I got on my original motor mounting bracket to get the best change of smooth up and down movement with the minimum amount of deflection from loose fit of the threaded lifting mechanism. There seems to be plenty of info about shims and replacements, but not much about motor and belt replacement and threaded rod.

Here are a couple of questions I've been looking for answers for.

How do you remove belts and motor from motor mounting bracket?
Does anyone actually know the different dimensions of the BT3000 guide holder compared to the BT3100 guide holder?

This seems like a lot of trouble to go through, but I looked at some new portable table saws and didn't see anything I really liked. I got rid of a bulky, heavy, cast iron Craftsman table so I could easily store saw in tight area and move it out easily when I need it.

Thanks for any help/links you can provide.

[LCHIEN]

Welcome to the forum.

I fortunately have not ever had to go into that part of my saw. Even though I wrote the BT3FAQ

This section of the sawdustzone website has a number of articles on shims and upgrading shims in that part of the saw. Perhaps you can find something here or elsewhere if you poke around and use the search tool (I find advanced works better) and play around with the search terms.

https://www.sawdustzone.org/articles/maintenance-repairs

Removing the belts and pulley - the belts are short and not all that stretchy so they can be hard to get off. the best I have heard is to put a 3/4 socket and ratchet on the arbor nut in place to rotate the motor and pulleys while using a screwdriver or other non-sharp tool to help walk the belts off. And to get them back on, too.
If you need to get the pulley off, you may need a pulley puller. Cheap ones at Harborfreight.com, automotive stores have some for rent or loan if you ask nicely.

[dbhost]

If you work on any kind of machinery frequently I can attest to the need for a puller set. I have the first three Loring lists for various applications as they differ. The 8" 3 jaw gear puller I have no need for, I can borrow one if I need it, and I have not yet needed it...

[RRS_BT3000]

Thanks for the info LCHIEN. I think I got most of the info I was looking for. The only thing I don't know about is the guide holder dimensions. I think I will try calling Ryobi, they don't have any info about these on their website anymore. You would think they'd keep an archive available on website for people trying to keep these saws in service. It's doubtful they will know anything about the guide holder dimensions, or why there only appears to be 1 part number for both the 3000 and the 3100. I would think there has to be a distinguishing number to identify differences in the part dimensions. If I find out the details about the differences in the 2 guide holders, I post it for future reference.

[twistsol]

...
I joined the forum just to see if there are archives that a user/member can get to that the casual onlooker can't
...

The entire site is open to everyone as a free resource, nothing hidden and no secret handshakes required.

[LCHIEN]

I haven't looked but i think over the years people have researched and documented exactly what they did and parts they had to buy or make to upgrade their BT3000 to use BT3100 shims which would not fall out. These should be in the articles and or discussions.
Not recently but 5 or 10 years back. But most of them are still on-line which is why this site is such a good repository of information.

A quick search for upgrade BT3000 to BT3100 shims gets this:
https://www.sawdustzone.org/search?searchJSON=%7B%22keywords%22%3A%22upgrade+B T3000+shims+to+BT3100%22%2C%22channel%22%3A%5B%5D% 2C%22sort%22%3A%7B%22relevance%22%3A%22desc%22%7D% 2C%22view%22%3A%22%22%2C%22exclude_type%22%3A%5B%2 2vBForum_PrivateMessage%22%5D%2C%22has_answer%22%3 A%22-1%22%2C%22current_user_only%22%3A%220%22%7D&btnSub mit=

you might try searching without the BT3000 and BT3100 for more hits.

Happy New Year

[RRS_BT3000]

I wanted to update this thread specifically on the shim and guide holder information, but I will start off with the motor I bought from Ebay and the bearing and belt replacement first. I read some of the older links Lchein suggested and found out how to make a simple tool out of 1/2" thin wall conduit to walk the belts off, see the pictures.

The motor I bought from Ebay worked fine and checked out electrically. But the bearings felt a little rough and I didn't want to take this apart again for another 10-15 years. I had to fabricate a bearing puller to remove the bearings from the armature and was able to source new bearings from the numbers on the old bearing.

After getting the motor and belt assembly back together then I ran into problems getting the guide holder shims. I ordered both sets for the old ones on the BT3000 first from: ereplacementparts


The flat shims are still available, but the ones with the bent ears are not anymore, so I bought the new spring shims for the BT3100 from this link: ereplacementparts

Somewhere on this forum I thought I saw the guide holders are the same on the BT3000 and BT3100 except the taped holes for shim adjustment set screws on the BT3000. I tried using the new spring shims on the BT3000 guide holder, but it's too tight. I was contemplating experimenting with milling my old guide holder but found out I can order a new one for ~$25 from the later link above. Unfortunately, it took about 3 months to get as it was on back order. I almost forgot about it and it just showed up a couple of days ago, so I thought I'd follow up with the differences to the guide holder. The pictured guide holder is the new one. it looks the same except the set screw holes for the old version shim adjustment are not taped. The new dimensions on my caliper in picture for reference. The old part # 969212 holder had a measurement of ~3.680" across, and depth of ~0.418".
The depth of the new guide holder changed about 0.040" for the new spring shims. So in theory, the old guide plates could be used if someone was inclined to mill them down. Here is the list of the parts to upgrade the BT3000 to the new style of shims on the BT3100.

From 2nd link for the BT3100
A3 - Part# 0181010314, Spring shim for BT3100
A80 - Part# 0181010110, Guide Holder for BT3100
A86 - Part# 969600001, Flat shim same for BT3000 and BT3100

Thats it for now, I just have to remember how to put the saw back together since it's been laying apart all over my garage since Dec 2023 & Jan 2024. Luckily I took lots of pictures and have the manual. I may post once more to verify everything works ok when I get around to putting it all back together.

PS, I had to remove links, it wouldn't let me post with them.

[Black walnut]

Thanks for the update! An alternative to switching over to the spring shims of the 3100 series is to use shim stock and bend your own. If you install Norm's Shim supports, once you make a new set of the bent shims it is a permanent fix. The flat shims since they are captive by the through fasteners are never damaged or lost.

Anyway welcome to Sawdustzone.org! Thanks for your input.

[RRS_BT3000]

I did see the post from Norm about capturing the original shims which I didn't have and you can't buy them anymore. But since the parts weren't that expensive and I've got to many other projects going on, I decided to go the easy route. If I couldn't have got new parts I definitely would have done the Norm shim support.

Since it looks like you updated my membership (thank you for that), I decided to try attaching the links for BT3000/3100 parts I couldn't attach in last post.

BT3000
ereplacementparts com ryobi-bt3000-table-saw-parts-c-7931_7954_7955.html

BT3100:
ereplacementparts com ryobi-bt3100-precision-woodcutting-table-saw-parts-c-7931_7954_7956.html

Still can't post links, but you can go to ereplacementparts and search on BT3000 or BT3100. You should call them first to make sure they have parts in stock. As I found out the website isn't that accurate about what they actually have on hand.

[LCHIEN]

For those going down that same road, this article

https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/vbcms-comments/34809-bt3000-to-3100-shim-upgrade?t=33948

gives the procedure and parts to upgrade a BT3000 to use the redesigned BT3100 shims.

I do recall the discussion at the time that the new "wavy" shims required a new "guide holder" motor bracket. Which is described and installed in that article.

The BT3FAQ also states that a new BT3100 Guide holder is required, altho I think it says that new belts are needed it is only if you are doing a belt replacement at the same time.