Hello everyone, Ive recently bought an HL tiger from mato toys that just arrived yesterday. The tank is the super version, (has metal gear boxes) and I have also installed the Elmod booster and TLS systems. These things are great! They really improve the quality of the tank, and the 'momentum' that it gives the tank is really neat. However, when I started driving the tank I noticed that it went opposite of what I told it to do. Simple wiring mistake when I installed the booster. So after I opened the tank back up and testing to make sure the sprockets went the right way before closing it up, I noticed alot of binding in the gears on the right side. After I got the gears to move a bit, but still stiff at a certain part, I unscrewed the motor. The gears do have a bit of a bind in them, but what troubles me more is the speed of the motor. Completely seperated from the gears, the motor will not start moving untill the tank reaches a certain speed. This is because the Elmod electronics allow the tank to move at really slow speeds, but it seems about 4 steps in speed go by before the motors pinion starts turning. I am not sure what the problem is, but it seems like the motor is having trouble turning the pinion, and only starts when there is a sufficient ammount of power. Does anybody know what the problem could be? If it fixable, or if I need a new motor mayby? If I do have to buy a new one what type would I need? Thanks for the help.

Sounds like you need to break in your gear boxes. Trust me it was the best thing I ever did. I predict that my box stock gearboxes sapped about 30% of my motor power. THe gears would actually heat up due to the terrible lash.
Take them out, run them for about 2 hours, applying either Lava soap or non-gel toothpaste. Clean them off and apply a light layer of lithium grease. These things easily spin by hand and the noise reduction is incredible.

May hove blown the speed controle for the first few steps of speed due to the gears binding could have cause parts to over heat?

Try setting the EL MOD booster up for no momentum and then see how the motor responds. It may be that you are not giving the electronics time to catch up to you stick movements. Remember the Momuntum feature needs to "spool" up to the desired speed and doesn't respond immediately to the joystick input.

I was thinking that the speed controll might be damaged but the other motor works fine, its just the left motor that wont start untill it gets up to a certain speed. The right motor functions like normal. Also what would I use to break in the gears? I dont have any type of electric drill I could use, so Im not sure how I could break them in.

I use Lava soap or toothpaste. Just use the stock motor and rig it up to run off your 7.2 volt battery for 2 hrs. the difference it night and day.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_57...tm.htm#5784147

I agree with Perry on the gear thing... Mine were so tight, they actually locked up. I used a triangular jewelers' file to open up each and every tooth on ALL the gear wheels in BOTH gearboxes... It took forever to do, but now it spins as free as a bird.

I will deffinetly break in the gears to help them stop binding up. However, I think that the main problem is the motor. I am not sure how to fix it at all, because it doesnt start moving untill the tank reaches a certain speed, even when the motor is completely seperated from the gears. Do you guys think mato toys can send me a replacement motor? Because I cant send the tank back now that I have installed the Elmod stuff. I think the Elmod electronics are working fine, because the other motor still controlls regularly, so Im kind of stuck as to what I should do. Any ideas?

You can get a replacement motor for cheap, most likely under $8 USD.

I think what I may do is try to break the gears in to the point where the motor doesnt need much power to move them, which could solve the problem so that the motor wont struggle so much with the gears. If it still doesnt work, then Ill buy a replacement motor and solve the problem that way. For the gear boxes, can i still break them in through the stock electronics? Like remove the gear boxes, but mayby tape the controller throttle on full and just leave it on till the battery drains?

Besides breaking in the gear boxes, you should also break in the motors. There are several ways to do this. I would suggest running the motors with no load for about twenty minutes to seat the brushes, then follow with motor spray to clean the carbon fron the end bell and then re-lube the bushings. This always worked well in my rc car racing days. Hope this helps. Regards, John Z

Great suggestion. Here is a link on breaking in electric motors: [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5628228/tm.htm]Brushed Electric Motor Break-In Guide[/link]

Thank you everyone for all of the replies and suggestions. After alot of testing, I have determined that the problem was due to the motor, and the gears were also binding. However, even after ive broken in my gears some, the problem still remains. All i have done to break in my gears is run the tank without tracks, but it has helped the gears spin better. The motor though seems to be the real problem now. I used the 'original tank' setting on my elmod board and the motor will not start moving untill the second step. With the elmod boards momentum feature, it takes even longer because of the slower speeds. Is there any way I can fix the motor? I dont think I, and it seems to be a permanent problem. Is there any place that sells the same stock motors that HL uses in thier tanks, so I can buy a new one and replace it? Thanks for the help.

You can get replacement motors from Mato and other sources. If it's not listed on his website, send him an e-mail. They are 385s but exactly which ones remains open in debate. I saw a fellow once run Graupner Speed 400s in his Panther with El Mod, however, the El Mod guys could not guarantee it wouldn't blow the boards because the motors are rated for 7amps, the boards 5.

Is it possible the first step or two on the HL board is blown? Have you run the motor directly off a battery and compared it to another?