How does the incline motor on a NordicTrack actually lift the deck?

[Thomas Martinez]

The incline/decline on NordicTrack treadmills is something I never realy thought about until I saw a breakdown of how the incline on these treadmills work. There’s an incline motor that allow the treadmills to raise or lower the running deck. Inside the motor is a metal screw bar that essentially performs the action of raising or lowering the deck.
The console sends a signal to the motor to either raise or lower the incline. The motor’s shaft turns and the metal screw bar raises or lowers the running deck. It’s very simple technology but I’d imagine the metal screw bar is where most of the wear on the machine occurs. When the treadmills start to fail, is it possible that the screw bar is the component that people has replaced in order to fix the incline issues? Given the age of most treadmills, is it likely the incline motor fails like the drive motor does?

 

[Prehistoric Plunger]

its geared down, not direct. Theres a worm gear in the housing that drives the screw. You can hear it if you put your ear next to it while running incline up, theres that whine that gives it away.

 

[Nervous Newt]

Swapped two of these on a C2000 and a 1750. The screw itself is rarely the actual failure point. It’s the limit switch and the wiring harness to the motor. When people complain about grinding on incline I pull the shroud and it’s the limit switch. 9 times out of 10 the plastic limit switch have dried grease in the pivot points where the running deck pivots on the frame so I lube those up with lithium grease once a year and the grinding stop. The motor itself is a stout little DC motor and they seem to last forever on these treadmills.

 

[Muppet Mop]

Swapped two of these on a C2000 and a 1750. The screw itself is rarely the actual failure point. It’s the limit switch and the wiring harness to the motor. When people complain about grinding on incline I pull the shroud and it’s the limit switch. 9 times out of 10 the plastic li…

wait does the calibration thing actualy matter that much? mine has been beeping every time it boots saying calibrate incline and ive just been ignoring it for like 6 months

 

[Nervous Newt]

wait does the calibration thing actualy matter that much? mine has been beeping every time it boots saying calibrate incline and ive just been ignoring it for like 6 months

Yeah you actually want to run that. If the incline motor gets out of calibrating with the controller it will keep running the motor and raise the incline beyond the mechanical stop that prevents it from raising beyond a certain point. It can lead to either stalled motor (creates heat that can destroy it) or stripping the nut on the screw. Takes 30 seconds to recalibrate and its a good thing to do from time to time.