How to break in a brushed motor

[Sebkauff]

I recently got into spec slash racing (recently as in yesterday lol) and I noticed that my truck was a heckuva lot slower on the straight compared to nearly every other car. Everyone I talked to said that they broke in there motor either water break in or other. I didn't break mine in at all, just got it out and blasted it. So I'm assuming that is the reason mine is so slow. They did an inspection before the main so I know my gearing and battery is the same as everyone else's. So my question is, do any of you have tips or tricks on how to break in a new motor to get the most speed out of it? And any other tricks on getting more speed out of a brushed motor? Thanks in advance.

 

[Greywolf74]

This might help ya.

 

[DavidB1126]

I never broke in a brushed motor. Recently I put all of my spare motors in water. I plugged the esc into the steering channel (channel 1) so I can use the steering trim as like a cruise control setting. And left the motor going for 10 minutes cleaning out all of the sand, dust dirt grime and all of that. And I used a can of compressed air to clean it all out. I might get some bearing oil to lube the bearings in the motor. I forgot if the 12t titan motors have bearings or bushings.

 

[bill_delong]

Chances are you may have already damaged the brushes on your motor if you didn't break it in first, small chips of the brushes will break off and you lose significant contact patch with the comm and that reduces your performance.

I've had really good luck with the Trinity Black Death Comm Drops:
https://www.teamtrinity.com/trinity-black-death-power-comm-drops-4052.html

Follow the directions carefully, very important to put a drop in each brush before every single race and to clean the comm at least once per race day... I would get about 12 race days before the brushes would wear out and it was time to replace the motor, if you want to be competitive.

 

[TRAT]

Ok will give little tip when doing brush settings you first have to have a brush for the Armature make sure that’s clean then set you’re brushes in run at low rpms to set them. Then when set and the gap is right ur good to go

 

[Monkey Wrench]

Wow, I never knew you had to break a brushed electric motor in! May need to pull my motor from my Mini-B and Fazer M2 now!

 

[tntpoof]

i found out a few years ago when brushed racing at local rc tracks was starting to go brushless. use green antifreeze with a D cell battery soler wire wires on put motor in jar with green ant. let it run till it died (battery that is) then pull motor out. blow dry with air hose. then lube bushing i use zmax engine lube.i dont like com drops tried them before they made a dirty mess and made motor use way more mah than without.

 

[Sebkauff]

Chances are you may have already damaged the brushes on your motor if you didn't break it in first, small chips of the brushes will break off and you lose significant contact patch with the comm and that reduces your performance.

I already got a new motor. I'm sure the old one is beyond help at this point.

Wow, I never knew you had to break a brushed electric motor in! May need to pull my motor from my Mini-B and Fazer M2 now!

You don't have to. But everywhere I've seen says it gives quite a bit more speed

i found out a few years ago when brushed racing at local rc tracks was starting to go brushless. use green antifreeze with a D cell battery soler wire wires on put motor in jar with green ant. let it run till it died (battery that is) then pull motor out. blow dry with air hose. then lube bushing i use zmax engine lube.i dont like com drops tried them before they made a dirty mess and made motor use way more mah than without.

That's interesting. Does the antifreeze help keep the motor cooler?

 

[bill_delong]

That's interesting. Does the antifreeze help keep the motor cooler?

Any liquid will work, idea is that you want to soften the brushes so they can be re-shaped easier, that's where Trinity formulated their comm drops to be more effective in softening the brushes than water. I have no idea if AF does a better job, but I have heard of others using it. I have yet to find anyone to get a motor going any faster than with the comm drop method.

It would be a good idea to have a spare motor that's already broken in as well... not uncommon to chip a brush in a hard wreck and lose power during a race... by using comm drops before every race you are softening the brushes to make them less likely to chip, but even then there are no guarantees if you crash at the perfect angle

 

[Greywolf74]

I could see where anti-freeze would be better than water. Modern anti-freeze has all kinds of corrosion inhibitors in it that coats the metal and protects it. I have no idea about comm drops.

 

[WickedFog]

I could see where anti-freeze would be better than water. Modern anti-freeze has all kinds of corrosion inhibitors in it that coats the metal and protects it. I have no idea about comm drops.

It's the Propylene Glycol that is probably the main benefit of using antifreeze. It is a helluva lubricant. I am betting you could just use PG.

 

[Greywolf74]

It's the Propylene Glycol that is probably the main benefit of using antifreeze. It is a helluva lubricant. I am betting you could just use PG.

PG doesn't have the corrosion inhibitors that bond to metal though

 

[WickedFog]

PG doesn't have the corrosion inhibitors that bond to metal though

Not sure how a corrosion inhibitor helps soften a brush, but I'm no chemist.

 

[Greywolf74]

Not sure how a corrosion inhibitor helps soften a brush, but I'm no chemist.

I didnt mean for softening the brushes, I just meant if comparing submerging it in anti-freeze vs water. As you say the PG is a better lube than water and the inhibitors will help protect the copper and other metal parts from corrosion. Not saying you can't prevent corrosion if you did use water either.

 

[Monkey Wrench]

Maybe I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed (in fact I know that to be true ) but it seem contradictory to put anything electrical into water or any liquid for that matter. Do you just put it in enough water to submerge the motor but keep the leads dry? I just don't want something to short and fry the rx or ESC or anything for that matter.

 

[bill_delong]

Maybe I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed (in fact I know that to be true ) but it seem contradictory to put anything electrical into water or any liquid for that matter. Do you just put it in enough water to submerge the motor but keep the leads dry? I just don't want something to short and fry the rx or ESC or anything for that matter.

If the ESC is waterproof you can submerge it too! All brushed motors and sensorless motors are waterproof by default... with the kicker that you need to clean and oil any motor and bearings/bushing after it has dried.

 

[Monkey Wrench]

If the ESC is waterproof you can submerge it too! All brushed motors and sensorless motors are waterproof by default... with the kicker that you need to clean and oil any motor and bearings/bushing after it is dried.

Okie dokie! I won't risk rhe ESC. I'll have to figure out how to do this without taking the entire car apart, but it sounds like I need to do this. Same as @Sebkauff ,my Mini-B looks like it's standing still compared to the others on the straights!

 

[bill_delong]

 

[Greywolf74]

Okie dokie! I won't risk rhe ESC. I'll have to figure out how to do this without taking the entire car apart, but it sounds like I need to do this. Same as @Sebkauff ,my Mini-B looks like it's standing still compared to the others on the straights!

For $60 you can get an Adjustable DC Power Supply from Amazon. Thats the one I have. Buy some allagator clips and run the motor on 3v for about 20-30 minutes while submerged.

If you have an old computer power supply laying around it can cheaply and easily be converted to be a benchtop power supply that has 12v, 5v, and 3.3v outputs. You can use the 3.3v output on that to likewise run the brushed motor. I have a youtube video I can link you on how to do the conversion if you're interested.

 

[Iowa crawler]

I’d did this for the first time and the motor seemed to pick up 200 rpm. Did not use antifreeze just plain water.