why am i burning up motors??

[hoghead5150]

ok. 3s lipo 4400mah 30c. gearing is stock in axles, 18 tooth pinion, 87 tooth spur. have tsl-sx tires and proline titus wheels with 8oz weights in each front wheel.

i burned up the stock motor, swapped in a 27 turn axial motor and burned it up within 1 pack. put in an integy pro lathe 35 turn and it lasted 2 packs. the first two motors burned up while running 2s lipo's.

no binding what so ever! checked and rechecked this. installed MIP driveshafts (by the way, the driveshaft pins are easy to get out!)

yesterday i ran a whole 3s pack thru it with no problems. BUT we were doing more scouting than crawling. we would crawl about 5 minutes and then stop for a half hour or so. today i crawled for about 10 minutes and the motor let go. this is starting to suck (altho i'm getting pretty good at swapping motors!) what i would like to know is: the motors i've used are pretty cheap is this why they keep smoking out? is my gearing way wrong? i'm looking for a crawler with a little speed. the 35 turn on 3s was good for me but flames suck!

i don't want to buy a high dollar motor and have it do the same thing, but i'm beginning to think it's the cheap motors just not having the nuts to keep up and letting me down.

[Erbing]

Stock motors tend to not last, maybe just your luck. I never tried integy, so I can't comment on that. I'm using a Tekin 35t "HD" on 3 s with stock gearing and it works good. Have about 10 packs through it and it's still going strong. Good wheel speed and torque.

[hoghead5150]

i even went and drilled holes in the floorboard of the interior (perforated) to help get more air in/heat out. guess that didn't work!! today was just doing some slow crawling for about 10 minutes, came up to a small hill (5 feet or so tall) and throttled up it. it was loose dirt/small rocks so no hangups or anything. got up to the top, stopped and about 5 seconds later it looked like somebody set off a smoke bomb!!

[322]

What esc are you using?

[OntarioCrawler]

stock axial motors hate lipo power. even my venom fried after i ran a lipo through it.

you best bet is a brushless or the well known crawlmaster and a decent ESC

[kdrodworks316]

I think you might have some rotten luck. Ive been racing and crawling for 20 years and have never burned up a motor. I have a novak brushless system in my wraith, an integy 55 turn in my ax10. I dump 5-7 packs a day and never have had any issues. The stock motor going out isnt uncommon, but a decent integy motor should last awhile. The common factor here is your truck, so I would look at a small gearing change or some kind of drivetrain bind or friction.

[322]

A couple of my buddies run the stock setup with the same lipo batteries, drive the same style and one burns motors all the time the other is still on the stock motor. I think some of the stock esc's might be lemons.

[hoghead5150]

i'm still running the stock esc. i've checked this thing for binding in the drivetrain about a dozen times. it's smooth as butter. it may just be bad luck with motors. i can see the stock motor not lasting, and i can even see the other 27 turn not lasting. but i would have thought that the 35t integy would have lasted a little while! i was running the stock motor and the 27t with an 18t pinion and stock (80t) spur. i had the gear mesh a little loose and when i threw in the 35 turn and 3s i stripped the spur gear. i then installed the 87t spur and set the mesh a little tighter. i bet i set the mesh 10 times trying to get it right. i've heard that to tight and it binds, to loose and you strip the teeth. so i got it set where there is just a slight rock to the spur before hitting the teeth of the spur. does that make sense?

[JohnRobHolmes]

Sounds like the mesh is right. Have you recorded or checked motor temps? I would think the integy should last with a 18t pinion. Have you tried adding a smidge of timing to the motors to avoid arcing? The wraith uses reverse rotation motors, so the timing will be reverse of normal.

[skid]

On thing you might look at is motor timing. Stock the wraith rtrs came with a reverse rotation motor. Stock motor should have been correct, but they aren't a reliable motor to begin with. Find a adjustable endbell motor. Set to 0 degress timing. With motor running in the forward rotation, adjust timing up to about 10 degrees in the direction that increases motor speed.

Sealed endbell motors are not happy running in reverse. Brush and spring design are almost guaranteed to fail when ran full time in reverse.

[hoghead5150]

john, i haven't done anything except wire it up. i'm so new to this i am kinda afraid of messing things up. guess i need to start reading!! lol. i recorded the temp on the last run with the integy. after 10-15 minutes it was 180*. let it cool down. today it was about 140* the first time, the second time it was up to 185*! i let it cool down. this was within the first 5 to 7 minutes of crawling. it got down to 90* and i went back to crawling and within 3 minutes it smoked. at that time it was 235*

[JohnRobHolmes]

That is way too hot for normal use. 6 to 12 degrees of timing (12 degrees is one mark on the endbell) is good to use.

Maybe you are just running it really really hard? My stock motor lasted a long time, even though it ran hot.

[hoghead5150]

the stock 20t motor lasted about 20 packs. all 2s 300mah. it let go and i swapped in a 27t motor. got this one free from a buddy. it was new and didn't make it thru 1 pack.

i don't think i'm being very hard on the motors. i'm new to rc stuff so maybe i am. my buddy has a scx-10 and he is hell on that thing! he has 0 problems but he is running a goat 3s with 18.5t brushless. maybe i need to go that route. i was following him today and he was really pushing his. with the smaller tires he was getting hung up on rocks alot and really flooring it to get thru some places. i was just slowly crawling behind him.

it was mentioned earlier, but do you think the stock esc could be part of the problem?

[JohnRobHolmes]

Stock ESC should be just fine. I bet the 27t motor you put in was timed for the wrong direction. The integy motors are normally timed at zero, but it could have been just a bit off in the wrong direction. A few degrees of proper advance really helps with motor life at high speeds.

[hoghead5150]

think a 16t crawlmaster would hold up with my gearing?

[Stburr91]

Since we're talking about motor timing, I'm about to install a new Tekin Redline 13.5t in my Wraith, do I need to adjust the timing, or just install it the way it comes?

Sorry if this is a dumb question, it's just that I've never owned anything that you did't just drop right in, and call it good.

[ickabob]

Originally Posted by Stburr91

Since we're talking about motor timing, I'm about to install a new Tekin Redline 13.5t in my Wraith, do I need to adjust the timing, or just install it the way it comes?

Sorry if this is a dumb question, it's just that I've never owned anything that you did't just drop right in, and call it good.

I would like to hear the answer to this myself

[skid]

Originally Posted by Stburr91

Since we're talking about motor timing, I'm about to install a new Tekin Redline 13.5t in my Wraith, do I need to adjust the timing, or just install it the way it comes?

Sorry if this is a dumb question, it's just that I've never owned anything that you did't just drop right in, and call it good.

Which esc? Few options I've done with a MMP, either set timing to 0( clockwise) and use esc timing, or leave factory setting(about 12 degrees) and flip the differentials in the axles so the ring gear is on the opposite side of the pinion gear. You may or may not have to reprograam the esc for reverse direction.

[Stburr91]

Originally Posted by skid

Which esc? Few options I've done with a MMP, either set timing to 0( clockwise) and use esc timing, or leave factory setting(about 12 degrees) and flip the differentials in the axles so the ring gear is on the opposite side of the pinion gear. You may or may not have to reprograam the esc for reverse direction.

I have a Mamba Max. So when I program it with the software, what settings would I change?

[stricker76]

Originally Posted by hoghead5150

have tsl-sx tires and proline titus wheels with 8oz weights in each front wheel.

Could that be part of the problem with the motor running hot? I run 3.5 oz. in each of my front, and it was fine for crawling, but higher speed bashing i swapped the unweighted ripsaws back on. Did some higher speed hillclimbing on the weekend with the weighted set on, and sure enough it fried the motor. Lasted about 20 packs up to this point.