Reconstituting a sluggish motor

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pzooc	Reconstituting a sluggish motor	Lead	[-]
Posts: 98 (01/21/06 10:13 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None I'm sure we have all experienced cars that run fast for a while but over time lap times gradually decrease. No amount of tuning seems to help. The car runs smooth but it just doesn't have the quick acceleration or top end it once had. On one particular Scaley car, I decided for the first time to have a look at the motor and see what I could do. I had never actually messed with a can type motor before. I recall with HO cars back in the seventies having to change the brushes from time to time but that is the limit of my experience. So I removed the armature and windings from the can, cleaned the magnets with denatured alcohol (the cleaning solution for everything I touched), lightly sanded the dark marks off the commutator (1000 grit wet/dry paper), cleaned the armature plates and tried my best to clean the portion of the brushes that touch the commutator. I did not remove the brushes and I wasn't sure they were met to be removed. I also was afraid if I removed them, I'd never get them back in. After putting it all back together, I haven't noticed any significant improvement. Were the brushes the missing link? Or is more difficult to revive one of these motors? Pat
SJSlots	Re: Reconstituting a sluggish motor	#1	[-]
Posts: 2133 (01/21/06 11:18 AM) HRW Feature Editor! Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	That's a good question Pat. I have the same issue going on with my Scaley Porsche 911GT3 and my Scaley Mustang T/A for our club races. I wasn't about to take mine apart and instead have been considering a motor swap. It's an easier decision on the Porsche, since its the same motor that ran 8 races last season and a couple this season, but my T/A Mustang has only seen 3 races and is getting beat both in top end on the long straight and torque in the technical sections. Shawn -------------
rollo001	Re: Reconstituting a sluggish motor	#2	[-]
Posts: 428 (01/21/06 11:22 AM) Home Racing Guru! Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I have one Artin motor that is just a dog compared to all the others I have(13 in all), I tried using some of the motor building skills I practiced in my commercial 1/24 racing days on it. I took it apart cleaned everthing I could, put the armature on my com truer and trued the comutator, and adjusted the timing of the com. I then used my motor machine(a small power supply with voltage and amperage meters on it) and tested the motor, I continued to adjust the timing unttil I got the best sounding rpm whine I could and put it back together ensureing that I had the endbell on straight and true so that the arm was not binding. I retested it to check the rpms and the amps being pulled by the motor everything was the same. when I put it back in the car I only noticed a slight improvement, lap times over 100 laps only showed minimal improvement, a couple of hundreths or so off my best laps with it before I worked on the motor. I didn't do anything with the brushes as it looked like they were permantly mounted in the bell housing and I knew I didn't have any others to replace them with anyway. Brushes can make a huge difference , and getting the right combination of brushes was something I used to spend alot of time doing when I used to race the box 15 winged cars and other commercial 1/24's. So I figure that motor probably has a badly matched set of brushes in it. Rollo001
RichD	Re: Reconstituting a sluggish motor	#3	[-]
Posts: 1390 (01/21/06 02:20 PM) Home Racing Guru! Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Many of the people in my club are ex 1/24th racers and were used to tweaking their motors. They tried tuning their 1/32nd motors with no luck. Basicly you either get a good one or you don't. Our rules call for unopened motors so I haven't tinkered with 1/32nd motors very much. I had a Slot.it motor start to act up, so I opened it up and found that there was a lot of crud on the commutator. I removed the crud, but there was no real improvment in the motor. It is not a good thing to sand a commutator. Metal polish works well if the comm is not worn. I have a comm truing machine and that is the thing to use with worn arms, providing that they are not too far gone.
MoparSlotCarRacer	Re: Reconstituting a sluggish motor	#4	[-]
Posts: 44 (01/22/06 09:59 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Very often the motor com brushes become saturated with oil. These are S cans I am assuming ? The brushes are on spring loaded straps inside the endbell which need spreading to remove / install the armature. The brush assembly simply slides out of the endbell with the plastic raised part, see outside of the endbell in between the lead wire terminals ? If not the brushes, the most likely cause would be the armature became overheated, most likely from too much magnetic drag between the car and track.
ddyke	Re: Reconstituting a sluggish motor	#5	[-]
Posts: 3357 (01/22/06 01:08 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	If a motor overheats the magnets inside can be weakened. There are a million factors it seems like. My resolution is to do everything I know then give up if it does not work. Take the brushes out and cleam them with contact cleaner, let them dry and reinstall them. Another thing is to clean every electrical connection from the guide to the motor. I desoldered one set of wires and resoldered them on with new solder. The thing perked right up. Also clean the wire springs that push the brush in. Who knows where the fault is. Dan
Larry L S	Re: Sluggish usually means dead or near dead!	#6	[-]
Posts: 107 (01/22/06 03:28 PM) Home Racing Forum Veteran Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Many of these motors, if they have carbon brushes have the brushes held against the comm by the spring arms they are mounted on. These will over time,heat and with brush wear apply less pressure of the carbon brush to the comm. When the pressure is reduced the power of the motor is affected. With those cheap motors that have no carbon brushs the spring comm contacts can get hot and reduce the pressure to the comm also or just wear through and stop making contact or just on the small part or tip of whats left touching the comm. Time for a new motor. You could try re-bending the spring arms a bit to increase contact pressure. GOOD LUCk at that though. Thats why these are cheap motors to start with, the way they are made. Made for much different purposes than slot car motors. under heavy high loads with high gearing to get the RPM's for racing. Most are designed for lower voltages and much much lower gearing for torque type applications.
pzooc	Brushes	#7	[-]
Posts: 98 (01/22/06 08:42 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Thanks for the information, Guys. Dan, are the brushes on the Scaley motors removable? It was hard for me to tell and I didn't want to risk it. Since I posted these questions, I've had at least two people also tell me to never use an abrasive on the commutator (like wet/dry sandpaper). Oh well, live and learn - its a dog of a motor anyway. Pat
Rickard5	Re: Brushes	#8	[-]
Posts: 1195 (01/23/06 05:09 AM) Home Racing Guru! Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Check out this Guy's site: www.carmoworld.com/parts-motor.htm it's in Engrish, but you'll quickly pick it up, Lots of good info on s can motors :-)
slotpoor	re:brushes	#9	[-]
Posts: 1431 (01/23/06 09:27 PM) Home Racing Guru! Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	In my experience some Scaley motors die early. In several instances on a stock scalex track with two wall warts the motors overheated after running hard for about an hour. They may not run good after that. One motor in my camaro got so hot it melted the chassis around the can end of the motor. Stock mags but hard running. I have put 3 motors in that car now. I think there just isn't enough amps to feed the Scalex motors there. I know of a few other scalex motors that slowed down as well. I bought two used cars that had slow motors. But, there are some that run fast no matter how long you run them. It just seems to be common with scalex motors. Slotpoor
ddyke	Re: re:brushes	#10	[-]
Posts: 3357 (01/24/06 12:29 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I have sanded comms and picked up speed but I used 2000 grit and above. I have a piece that is like cloth. Dan

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Reconstituting a sluggish motor

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