TorqueMaster Sport 540 13t for Twin Hammers

[thevirg]

I purchased this motor 7 or 8 weeks ago.
I broke it in by driving it gently (no more than 1/2 throttle) up and down my back alley for a full 4200MAH battery pack.
Everything seemed to work well for a couple of packs after that. It has now become intermittent.
It will suddenly become unresponsive when I give it throttle. This usually happens after driving in reverse but sometimes happens in forward. Steering still operates normally.
Sometimes if I give the truck a little nudge, it will start working again. Sometimes it remains unresponsive even with a push.

I removed the motor and manually powered it up at different starting positions, manually turning the motor shaft between power ups. There are a few positions that the motor will just not start from.

I've been trying to contact the vendor for several weeks now about this problem, but so far they have not given me any kind of response.

Any suggestions?

Bad brushes already?

Thanks
Virg.

[JohnRobHolmes]

Brushes are probably hanging or worn down. I responded in another you posted about it as well.

[Charlie-III]

Couple simple things to check:

-How long are the brushes? if they're worn too far they can cock in the brush hood. At a minimum, there should be a little over 1/16" between the bottom of the spring slot & the brush spring.
-Make sure the brushes move in & out easily. Grab the brush braid and gently pull the brush out to the edge of the brush hood and then let it slide back in.

If all checks out OK, the motor may need a tune-up, or, it may have a bad winding causing an armature stall.

As an aside, both Holmes & Br00d motors come already broken in, no need for you to do it.

PS John Holmes just replied in another thread here, so he is around.

[thevirg]

Thanks for your reply. I'll take a look at the brushes.

Virg.

[thevirg]

OK. I finally got back to this.
The brushes shouldn't be worn. I have very little time on the motor.

I noticed that when the motor would become unresponsive, that if I pulled on the braid attached to the brush on the positive side, that it would work again. I removed that brush, cleaned it up with some 600 grit sand paper, and reinstalled it. I have now run a battery pack through it without any more failures. So far it looks like I may have it fixed.

Sorry about the double post John. When I posted on the other thread, I got a message that it would have to go through an approval process first. I didn't notice that it had been posted, so I tried a second time here.

Thanks
Virg.

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by thevirg

OK. I finally got back to this.
The brushes shouldn't be worn. I have very little time on the motor.

I noticed that when the motor would become unresponsive, that if I pulled on the braid attached to the brush on the positive side, that it would work again. I removed that brush, cleaned it up with some 600 grit sand paper, and reinstalled it. I have now run a battery pack through it without any more failures. So far it looks like I may have it fixed.

Sorry about the double post John. When I posted on the other thread, I got a message that it would have to go through an approval process first. I didn't notice that it had been posted, so I tried a second time here.

Thanks
Virg.

OK, you found the issue. Next time, rub the side of the brush against an ink eraser or against some cardboard (like the stuff on the bottom of a legal pad) to clean up the sides.
You really don't want to remove much/if any material from the brush. It can make the brush hang up more once it gets shorter.
Ideally, the brush slides in & out easily with very little rocking in the brush hood. Too much rocking can also lead to brush edge chipping in a forward/reverse motor application.

Thanks for the follow-up, for the next guy.

[thevirg]

OK. Back to the drawing board. After running a couple packs, the problem has re-appeared. I removed the motor again. The brush on the red side is half the length of the brush on the black side. Why the extreme wear on one brush? Looks like new brushes will be in my future, but will it wear extremely fast again?

[Charlie-III]

How does the ends of the brushes look? They should be dark but "sorta shiny" not rough/pitted.
You may still have a brush hood issue (misalignment, tight fit, etc.). Was the braid tight or loose enough for the brush to wear?

[JohnRobHolmes]

Positive normally wears faster. Everything sounds like regular brushed motor operation and wear.

[thevirg]

Im not surprised that the brushes are wearing. Im just surprised at the speed they are wearing. They lost about half their length over a couple battery packs.
If your telling me that this is normal wear, I will chalk it up as a learning experience and deal with it.
Thanks for your reply.

Virg.

[Charlie-III]

Sounds like faster than normal brush wear. I can do a lot of a season on a set of brushes.

[JohnRobHolmes]

It depends on driving style and terrain a lot. A set lasted me about ten packs in the TH, but might wear in just a few for another driver. Less forward to reverse action helps, less full speed second gear in the grass helps.

[Curcal]

Make sure you clean you motor regularly. If a fine dust gets in the brushoods theres too much resistance and bad conductivity to power motor. Theres couple spots our guys comp at that almost require a cleaning after driving there.

[xCoolHandLukex]

While I was waiting for my brushless castle setup in my TH I had a Holmes 13t with the SV3. It was already used and I still got probably 10hrs of run time before a brush finally disintegrated. I am running it in sand with paddles as well so it was having a hard life. Probably the best brushed motor I've used as far as torque and speed go. I did spray it out with brakleen after every run though and cut a peice of an old outerwears shroud try and keep some of the sand out.

[simon170]

Did you buy the motor new?

[xCoolHandLukex]

No I pulled it out of a wraith I bought. Guy said he had about 4-5 hours on it.

[cneill24]

Brushes could be bad or the com might need to be cleaned.

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