I'm new to the hobby and I acquired several used brushed 300\350\400 motors. I have a couple of 35 Amp brushless ESCs. I was told that I could use a brushless ESC with a brushed motor if I connected two leads of the ESC to one of the motor leads and the other ESC lead to the remaining motor lead. If the motor spins in the wrong direction; reverse two of the lead wires. I am very skeptical. Does anyone know for sure?

Your scepticism is well warranted. The advice is wrong.

Brushed motors are simple dc motors, and the controller simply adjusts the current and voltage available to the motor to control its speed.

Brushless motors are in fact 3 phase AC permanent magnet motors. The controller adjusts the output power's frequency, voltage and current to control the speed. Tying any 2 of the 3 output leads together would short that phase out, smoking the controller. The ac power to the dc motor would result in humming before the smoke billowed out.

J

WOW! Thanks a lot. You don't know how close I came to trying to hook it up that way. I figured with as expensive my ESCs were, there had to be some good reason to have three motor wires instead of two.

Thanks again

I don't imagine you would have done it twice!! [:@]