Contributed by: Steve Trebing | Published: June 2004 | Views: 19208 |  Email this Article
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This
review appears courtesy of RC
Driver Magazine.
This article appears in the January 2004 issue.
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Article
by:
Gary Katzer
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Photos
by: Walter
Sidas
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Basics
of motor maintenance
There are some things involved with racing that
people love to do, and some things people hate to
do. Take building shocks; I hate building shocks.
I dont know why, I just hate doing it. Tweaking
and working on motors however is something I love
to do. Im one of the few people that works
on a motor after every single run, I enjoy it so
much. When I work on my motor between rounds that
does not mean it needs a complete rebuild with a
commutator cut and new brushes, yet sometimes it
does. After years of motor work, Ive found
some key points that will make your motor upkeep
less of a chore and save you time. Here are some
tips to help the new racer to the veteran driver;
tips that can be applied to both modified and rebuildable
stock motors.
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Comm
Cleaning
After the motor has cooled down from a run, remove
the motor from the car and pull the brushes out
of the hoods
by unlatching the springs.
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The
condition of the brushes can tell you a lot about
how your motor is performing and also something about
your gearing. If the brushes are a burnt-purple color,
youve been overheating your motor and abusing
it. Most times the cause for your motor to become
overheated is that you have over-geared your motor.
Ill talk about gearing a little later. |
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Commutator
inspection
Now
that your brushes are out of the hoods, take a lookinside
and check out the condition of the commutator. You
should notice the
most wear around the slots in the comm itself. A
comm cleaning stick is all youll need to clean
the comm up. Slide a pinion on the output shaft
of the motor, and turn the armature (arm) a few
times with the cleaning stick inserted through the
brush hood and pressed against the comm. When finished
there may still be some burn marks around the slots.
If they are severe enough, thats when youll
want to break out the lathe to retrue it. No lathe?
Your local hobby store may have one and retrue your
comm for a small fee. After the comm is cleaned,
I flush everything out with motor spray.
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Brush
maintenance
You can get more runs out of a set of brushes than
most people think, but you need to take care of them.
For years I have used a fiberglass pen such as Trinitys
Comm Pen to clean the face of my brushes versus using
the round part on a comm stick. The fiberglass pen
actually gets between serrations on the face of a
brush and gets the entire glaze off the brush, not
just the stuff on the surface. If you put a hold in
the brush face, inspect it to make sure it hasnt
been worn away. Also check the sides of the brush
for wear and chipping. If need be spend a few bucks
and pick up a new set. |
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Overall
motor cleaning
When you remove the endbell to take the armature
out of the can, be sure you dont lose any
of the shims that are on top of the arm. Set them
aside and dont lose them; youll need
them when it comes time to put everything back together.
Same thing goes for the shims on the bottom of the
arm too.
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With
the arm out, take your motor spray and thoroughly
spray out both the can and the endbell. Be careful
to not get any motor spray on the brushes, it
can actually soften them. Set the can aside to
dry and hose down the armature with cleaner as
well.
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Put
it back together
Using the shims you removed earlier, place them back
on to the output shaft of the motor. If you really
want to pick up an advantage on the competition, replace
the brass shims with Teflon ones. The Teflon ones
will spin with less friction making your motors operate
more efficiently. You can use the brass shims to take
up most of the gap, and use the Teflon ones where
the shims would ride on a bearing or bushing. Place
the motors timing ring back in and screw the
endbell on. If you cut the arm, its recommended
that you also replace the brush at the same time.
I solder the brush leads onto the same tab where I
solder my ESC wire to the motor. |
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doing this, as much current as possible flows through
the brush versus having to travel through the hood
material. Slide the brushes into the hoods, and put
the springs on. If you have rebuilt your motor more
then five times and are still on the same set of springs,
I would probably replace those as well as they will
lose some of their tension over time. |
Final
Prep
Whether you had to do a complete rebuild or just a
cleaning, there are some final tasks before you bolt
your motor into your favorite ride. |
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- Oil
the bearings or bushings with highquality lube.
- Hook
your motor up to a 4-cell pack or other power
supply and run it for a few minutes to break in
the brushes. Stay under 5 volts though; you want
to break the brushes in, not run them through
a race simulation. No battery to break the motor
in? No problem, just take the car out for a spin
at a slow speed for 30 seconds to a minutethen
you can give it full throttle.
- If
the brushes were discolored, drop a tooth or two
on your pinion size, as you were most likely over-geared.
You may want to adjust your settings on your ESC
as well by upping the frequency or turning the
current limiter down.
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DuraTrax
Piranha DC Peak Charger
www.duratrax.com,
(800) 682-8948.
Heres a perfect charger for budget minded
electric enthusiasts. The Piranha DC Peak
Charger handles 6 or 7-cell NiCd or NiMH battery
packs from 1200 to 3600mAh capacity. The Piranha
delivers a fixed 4A linear peak charge and
automatically drops to a 50mA trickle charge;
the unit automatically drops to trickle rate
if no peak is detected after 80 minutes of
charge, an added safety measure. The charger
measures 4x3x1.6in. and features push-button
operation, twin LED charge status indicators,
reverse polarity protection, alligator input
clips, a Tamiya-style output connector and
a 5-year warranty.
DTXP4002; $22
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JR
SC-1 Speed Control
JR Racing, distributed by Horizon Hobby,
www.horizonhobby.com,
(217) 355-9511.
JRs new SC-1 is an inexpensive reversing
speed control designed for motors down to a
15T limit. The ESC offers easy one-touch operation
for quick setup and adjustment, thermal overload
protection and a 3-year warranty. The SC-1 is
prewired with a Tamiya-style battery plug and
bullet connectors for the motor. The unit measures
1.45x1.71x 0.89in. and features a large aluminum
heatsink to keep things cool. Part no.JRPSP100;
price$65 |
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This
article appears courtesy of RC Driver.
RC
Driver Magazine is published by Maplegate Media.
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