Motor insulator pad purpose And let me introduce myself - MSgt Kirkes, USAF retired

[ThunderDan74]

So my Vatarra Ascender has a brown plastic(?) insulator disc sandwiched between the motor and and the aluminum tranny motor plate. I first started seeing this insulator abuot 15 years ago. I assumed the insulator was used on cars with motors that mount on Plastic transmissions. The cars that I put together as a kid did not have this. I always assumed the addition of the plastic spacers serve to insulate a hot motor from melting the plastic transmissions. But now I’m assuming it’s purpose for a motor that mounts to an aluminum transmission is to protect the finish of the aluminum. Thoughts?

I know I look like a noob here but believe me when I say I am no noob when it comes to Understanding complex mechanical things. And I’m sure there’s a lot more of people like me in this forum and I only want to instigate a methodology question here. I’m a retired Master Sergeant of 20 years in United States Air Force. My job was to repair avionics systems across multiple Aircrafts as well as multiple platforms of automated test stations used for operational testing of those avionics components. Now that I’m retired I have more time on my hands to interact with this for him instead of just reading.

[MrBlank]

I am fairly certain the disc you refer to is used to stop vibrations, hold the motor in place, and prevent motor screws from backing off / loosening up.

[ThunderDan74]

Well that makes sense, thanks.

[Ninomaniac]

Some Tamiyas had a piece of cardboard (my Stadium Blitzer for example) between motor and transmission!

[JimmytheBarrel]

Tamiya hgas used these types of gaskets for a while. They are used as heat sheilds and to help keep debris out.

[fyrstormer]

It's a gasket to keep debris from getting into the transmission through the wide slots on the motor plate that allow the motor position to be adjusted. It serves little purpose if you're using a brushless motor, because the front face of the motor is completely sealed anyway. I use brushed motors and I still don't use the cardboard gaskets, but even so, I've never found debris inside my transmissions. I think they mainly exist because an engineer somewhere saw a potential problem and decided to fix it ahead of time. (I'm speaking as an engineer here. )

The cardboard gaskets also serve as thermal insulators. (Tamiya makes special aluminum ones that are obviously thermal conductors instead, and are intended to be used only if you also attach optional -- and mostly useless -- bolt-on heatsinks attached to the motor plate.) I've never seen any reason to use the cardboard ones as insulators either. If the transmission can heatsink some of the heat out of my motor, that's fine with me; if the transmission case actually gets hot enough to melt from the heat of the motor, then there's something horribly wrong with my setup to begin with.

It can protect the finish of the aluminum motor plate, if you care about that sort of thing. I never did. It's an off-road truck, it's going to get scratched up anyway, unless I'm driving it wrong.

It won't do much to damp vibrations. It's too thin, it's clamped too tightly between the motor and the motor plate, an unbalanced motor is capable of producing far more vibration than a little cardboard gasket could damp, and the motor shouldn't be producing significant vibration anyway. If your motor is unbalanced, buy a better motor.

It might help with keeping the motor screws from loosening, but I've never had that happen anyway. Tighten the screws properly and the motor won't move.

[meatmonkey]

I didn't know its purpose when I built my Ascender kit, so I left it out. 4 years later without any ill effects.

[Greatscott]

Originally Posted by ThunderDan74

So my Vatarra Ascender has a brown plastic(?) insulator disc sandwiched between the motor and and the aluminum tranny motor plate. I first started seeing this insulator abuot 15 years ago. I assumed the insulator was used on cars with motors that mount on Plastic transmissions. The cars that I put together as a kid did not have this. I always assumed the addition of the plastic spacers serve to insulate a hot motor from melting the plastic transmissions. But now I’m assuming it’s purpose for a motor that mounts to an aluminum transmission is to protect the finish of the aluminum. Thoughts?

I know I look like a noob here but believe me when I say I am no noob when it comes to Understanding complex mechanical things. And I’m sure there’s a lot more of people like me in this forum and I only want to instigate a methodology question here. I’m a retired Master Sergeant of 20 years in United States Air Force. My job was to repair avionics systems across multiple Aircrafts as well as multiple platforms of automated test stations used for operational testing of those avionics components. Now that I’m retired I have more time on my hands to interact with this for him instead of just reading.

Welcome to the forums and the retired life. In case you haven't noticed, things are a bit different on this side of the fence. Most notably, if your boss pisses you off out here you can simply tell him (or her) to go fornicate with themselves, and you'll survive on your retirement until you find another job.