Electric Motor Maintainence

[HumboldtBlazer]

Is it true I have to rebuild and lathe my motor after every 20 minutes of runtime? I read an article on Peak's website saying this. What kind of life do you guys get out of a motor? Can I run it for like a month and throw it away and buy a new one? Arent lathes expensive?

 

[HumboldtBlazer]

so no one feels like chiming in with there experience?:nope:

 

[El Pirata]

I would say a strong HELL NO. If that's the case I'm overdue for about 100 rebuilds. One little nore, buy a brushless and you'll never have to rebuild again.

 

[HumboldtBlazer]

I really want a brushless but I have yet to find one that fits the Micro or to see someone with a 280 brushless. If you find one I will buy it.

for $30 a motor if I could get a solid month out of it I would be happy so your news is encouraging

 

[El Pirata]

I have had my others motor that have brushes since March or April and they have never given me any problems. Especially nothing to warrant rebuilding them after 20 minutes of run time. Maybe the 20 minutes of run time is some sort of racers trick. It's pretty amazing that mirco motors run the same as regular motors.

 

[FastEddy]

If anyone has the right answer it will be Jake.
Call him or get his e-mail from http://www.jphracing.com

 

[El Pirata]

The site seemed really slow for me. Anyone notice this?

 

[robriguez]

I have seen motors that are 10 years old still run pretty good. My Latest Electric motor is about 8 months old and I've run it about 100 plus hours. I run it in all types of weather. I was having alot of fun running it in the snow we had this year.

From everything I've heard and read there are just a few steps to keep your motors in the best shape possible....
1-DO NOT GET THEM WET!!! I abuse this one all the time....just make sure to dry it out good with a hair dryer after bashing. But this WILL cut down the life of the motor.
2-Keep em clean. Again I am very guilty of not doing this. Even after the dirtiest muddyest runs I just take the housing off, clean with some nitro clean let dry, Clean the comutator (I use a pencil eraser) put everything back together and put a drop or 2 of 3-in-1 oil on the outside bearing next to the pinion gear.
3-Check your brushes and springs. The average brush is about 1/4 inch long. Although I'm sure you could... I would not recommend letting them get down past half that. If/when you do replace your brushes you want to put a drop or two of break in oil on the comm then just run at about 1/4 speed (with no load) for about 2-3 min to let the brushes "seat" to the comm. Take it apart clean everything again, then run no more than half speed for another 5-10 min and you should be fine

I have thouroughly (sp?) abused my motors and they still run great.

 

[Team 17]

I have the old RC 10 frm 12 years ago and never broke it in nor cleaned it. After sitting for 10 years it started right up and still moved pretty quickly.

 

[MasterChaos]

robriguez has the right of it. I didnt do a break in on my E=MAXX and I have never had any motor trouble. I am even a little worse on my cleaning then robriguez, I just blow into the housing without taking it off. Even so, I have had my E-MAXX for 2 years with about 50 hours on it and never had a problem.

As far as rebuilding the motor after 20 min of run time I can tell you straight up front that that is complete and utter Bull*&#T. electric motors are supposed to be broken in because brand new parts never mesh up perfectly. You can machine the hell out of the parts and there will always be microscopic flaws in the matchup. Motors need to run for at least an hour for all the parts to fit themselves together perfectly. It is best to run the motors at slow speed for that hour but who has time to do that? Electric motors are a lot more forgiving then Nitro or even regular gas and diesel engines, but they run better after the parts have been broken in.

Final verdict.... NEVER rebuild and electic motor after only 20 min. run time unless you have a problem or something breaks.

 

[HumboldtBlazer]

I called Jake he set the record straight. Number one I cannot lathe my Micro motor the best I can do is clean it and add new brushes. He says at the level of racing he competes in 20 minutes on a motor is a long time as he gets 8-10 minutes because of the agresive brushes he uses. On a normal motor you can get hours and hours on runtime before you need to change the brushes and most time you dont even need to lathe them. He says on my motor run it until it gets slow and by a new one. Jake is a cornicopia of electric knowedge.

 

[MasterChaos]

ok ok... I will revise my previous statement.
Using aggresive brushes means he is using a hard spring to force the brush into the spindle. In that case yes, those brushes will wear out very quickly. Under NORMAL conditions, I would run a motor for 75-100 hours before I considered changing out the brushes, unless you run in sand or something that does clean out of the moter easily. Even in that case you can take the motor apart and just clean the hell out of it. If you see scratching on the brushes or the spindle then replace them as needed.

How does that sound?

 

[nitro110]

hmm. how often (# of packs run thru) do you guys cut the comm?
for say, the monster pro motor..?

 

[militarymaxx]

I file comm lathing under the same category as matched cells,
tire warmers, hand winding and over-charging stick packs. It's stuff for the racers. Just like alot of you guys said, I too have run my motors many, many hours without a re-build. I tried the comm drops (Blackdeath comm drops), but never really saw an improvment. A good electric contact cleaner and some good bearing oil is all I really use. I have tried the glass of water trick and was amazed at all the crud that came out of the motor, even after I hit it with some cleaner first. I would like to pass on that electric motors, depending on the number of winds, magnet type and configuration, etc., have a sweet spot. So many times I lost that sweet spot by changing the pinion or spur gear by as little as one tooth. Speed or torque would drop off and I would scratch my head saying it should be faster based on the gearing changes I made. And it was different with different motors. Same gearing for one motor might be even better with another motor, worse on others. I have to give a plug for my sons Stampede. He's running a Reedy 9 turn modified on 7 cells and this thing is stupid fast. After we're done running it, we use it to cook supper on it. It gets that hot !!

 

[elburro]

My LHS says every 20 or so HOURS you might want to check the brushes and maybe have the comm cut. My GF's E-Maxx has more than 20 hours on it (more like 50 maybe), was never broken in and has had no motor problems at all. Those titan motors are so maintenence free, I don't even know how to take them out.

EB

I want my own E-Maxx!

 

[scottm]

OK, can anyone answer this: I hava a 10 year old Associated b-2 buggy that hardly ever gets used. Then I got a custom made, matched-cell 3300 mah ni-mh battery and tried it. Within 3 minutes the old Reedy modified was so hot the wires de-soldered off the terminals. So I replaced it with a 17 turn trinity. 5 minutes later the old Rooster reversable was toast, so I replaced that with a LRP controller. Now it works great, and actually clears all the jumps on my tmaxx track. I have sprayed the motor with water after a full battery and it doesn't boil off.

The question is, how much running can it take before the motor is in danger of damage? Can it take full throttle for an entire 3300 battery? How much time between runs?

Forgot to mention that I ran the motor with the wheels off for break in, but didn't have any break in oil. So I used Crisco and valve lapping compound instead What else will work?

 

[robriguez]

The purpose of the break in oil is ONLY for the brushes to form a good seat to the commutator. Using the valve lapping compound was prolly overkill. But as long as you cleaned the brushes very well you should be fine.

One of my motors is a highly modified reedy and i've run it on 3000Mah cells wot until the battery is dead with no problem. Do you have the buggy with the stealth transmission?? The only reason i ask is for air flow. If you have the room available they sell heatsinks that wrap around the motor case and help cools things down alot.

-The reason you burned out the motor was that it was never designed to run with that much power.
-The reason you burned up your ESC was that it prolly wasn't designed to handle a 17t motor (LOTS of current draw on a 17t).

I usually run new brushes a min or two with no load on the motor at all at 1/5 throttle with some break in oil. Clean everything up and run it in the car/truck/buggy with wheels at 1/2 throttle for about 10 min. Clean everything up again. Put a drop or 2 of some 3-in-1 oil on the outside bearing (under the pinion gear) and then rull the HELL out of it.

Matched cells usually allow for a higher current draw so you may go through brushes a little more frequently but if its a good quality motor you'll be fine. As long as you can still hold the motor in your hand without it being uncomfortably hot, change out your battery pack and keep on running!!!!

 

[scottm]

Thanks, robriguez. I was joking about the lapping compound, but I did use a spray oil, someting like wd-40 but I can't remember what. What else will work besides the proper oil?

So a 17 turn motor is fairly aggressive? It definately runs well. What else could I get for a decent compromise between performance and batt life?

 

[robriguez]

a 27 turn is what they call a "stock" motor. A Modified stock is a 27T that has been tweaked....comm cut, very aggressive brushed, possibly the magnets have been drilled out, better bearings, etc etc.

Generally, the lower turns you go the faster your motor will spin giving you greater top spead. a 27t typically has more tourque off the line than a 17t but the 17t will quickly smoke it once they both get going.

the other thing to look at is the number of winds (i think thats the term) basically it relates to the guage or the wire used and the number of times its turned around each magnet. The lower the number of winds the more amperage it can handle creating more tourque even thought you have a 17t motor.

Some of the really trick motors these days use FLAT wires to keep both the turns AND the winds down as low as possible. creating both a powerfull and fast motor all at th same time.....VERY kewl.

 

[FastEddy]

Originally posted by scottm
Thanks, robriguez. I was joking about the lapping compound, but I did use a spray oil, something like wd-40 but I can't remember what. What else will work besides the proper oil?

Mr. Mc Crakin jokes..
Your LHS should have several 19t motors to choose from. I run a Light Speed in my B3 and get some good run-times out of it. Any of the stock 19s should do well for you.

Do you really expect to run WOT all the time? I know you do this with your .21 and have fun. Someone should invent a full truck roll cage system for people like you. :hump:

-Ed