Motor lathes and the skill of rebuilding brushed RC motors is almost a lost art. I'm 48yrs old and the younger guys "Kids" in RC have no idea now a days. Everything is brushless now for them. So when they get involved into a vintage class using brushed motors (say 19 turn) they are constantly buying new motors. They also always wonder why my original motor runs so fast and I never have to replace it. I tried explaining brush spring tension, cut / timed brushes, etc. I'm better off trying to explain nuclear fusion to my dog. Anyhow, excellent video! You got a new subscriber from across the pond..
Time to move on with the times. Brushless motors are far superior in most applications. Brushed motors still have their place in niche applications, but for 99% of the RC hobby crowd (esp.l for the plane/heli/miniquad folks) brushless is better.
You should sell this as an instructional DVD for brushed motor rc owners. Traxxas still sells several models equipped with the brushed motors for entry level consumers. This vid could save many hobbyists, quite a bit odf $$$. Great job!
Awesome guide, I got an Tekin 35T back from 2011 and it died like 6 months ago. Decided to give this a try and guess what, now its working even better than before! Thanks a lot.
Really nice job at both explaining and demonstrating, step by step, how to disassemble and assemble a brushed motor, along with explaining each part. It was cool that you pulled out the lathe to clean and true the comm. Great video!!! Keep up the nice work. Very impressive. It's nice seeing "old-time" RC'ers and racers go back in time, when all we ran was old school brushed DC motors. Man, has time and technology changed, with RC vehicles!!!
I remember this. This is right up there with cutting down foam tires before a race. Also recall this was invaluable when a brushed motor would cost you $50-$80 and cutting the com and rebuilding was worth it. Nice video
thanks so much for posting this. I am learning a lot. My 20T atomic just quick and ruined my planned beach bash (Tamiya Hornet). So I am watching this and trying to figure out how to restore the motor. best!
I had no idea something like that little lathe even existed and that you could do this. Very cool stuff. Re-winding brushless motors is a snap once you've got the technique down, but now I'm moving from RC flight into RC bash trucks and 'unfortunately' started life with brushed instead of spending the extra on brushless, and now it's rebuild/replace time. I _just_ invested into a nice 80a brushed ESC, too.
Very informative video, very useful and great job. Please post other videos on ex brushed motors and their related tools. So nice to learn as much as possible. Thanks
I don't actually have any motors left with adjustable timing so I can't really get into that I'm afraid. What I can tell you is that motors that do have adjustable timing also have timing marks on the edge of the endbell where I showed the little tab that lines up with the can. Instead of that tab there are several marks that indicate positive, neutral and negative timing. If you post some pictures on our forum I might be able to help you more.
Great vid! Do you have any experience of using Tamiya commutator cleaning brushes? I’m trying to use the stand up cleaning brush kit on a Super Stock TZ - only replacing one motor brush (+ or -) at a time - but cannot get the motor to spin when the cleaning brush is attached. What am I doing wrong?
Very detailed ! Thumbs up and Thanks.. I just went out to get some used gear, so i can start rebuilding my old motors :) But what about the brushes ? And some say its best to break them in afterwards in destilled water ? Im just thinking, im running it in water anyway :)
Distilled water and regular tap water are not the same. Think of distilled water as "Pure" water, tap water or other water has minerals and stuff in it. I've used that method to break in grooved and tapered brushes for decades. Start the motor on a low RPM gradually raising the RPM up, only takes about 10 minutes.
This is something I've been looking into for a while now as I mess with a variety of vintage RC from Tamiya to Pan cars. Are the brushes and armatures a universal thing or are they specific to each motor? Thank you for the excellent video I feel like I could buy the tools and do this myself now.
They are specific to the motor size, brush hood shape & motor setup. There are standup & laydown brushes which simply indicates whether the brush is is vertical or horizontal in the brush hood and the groove is cut accordingly of course. Other than that the brushes & springs are pretty much interchangeable, depending on the performance desired. There are some oddball motors out there that are different of course but that covers the majority.
Impressive Video..I was hope you would talk about spring tension like light weight to heavy weight springs cause I'm still a bit clueless on that...but thank you great video
+Brady Chamblin Thanks, glad it was a help! I am working on talking more about this topic now that I have my motor dyno back and setup so I will try to cover that. Stay tuned!
I'm watching this 10 years after the video and wish I had gotten into RC earlier and rebuilt these brushed motors for no other reason than I want one of those mini-lathes. Hell, I might just go on-lin and grab one of these little puppies for free. I imagine they could be used to build links for crawlers and other vehicles...
Question, I have a 45t tekin motor an I used liquid bearings synthetic oil with needle dispenser I used 3 drops on front an back bearings Do you think the oil went through bearings on my commutator? are you think in ok?
It should be ok, I doubt 3 drops is enough to get through the bearing and down on to the commutator. Even if it does get on the commutator it should just run poorly until the friction of the brushes on the commutator "wear" off the oil after a minute or two.
jeepcrawler88 What you are talking about is the "timing" of the motor and I only briefly talked about that in the video. If you look again you'll see when I talk about the little plastic tab on the endbell that slots into the can. That is how you check the "timing" on a stock motor. There's very little play in that tab so you don't really need to mark the can and endbell alignment. However on motors without that, there are timing marks that you should take a note of before you disassemble the motor.
+RockGodZeppelin In theory yes, but in practical use probably not. You would have to go to an extremely fine grit/grain paper to get it the same level of smoothness, something above a 1200 grit/grain because the lathe uses a diamond tip. In addition it would be difficult to get an even finish across the entire surface while maintaining the cylinder shape and not creating any flat spots. However, one thing that I have seen work from time to time if it is just normal carbon buildup is a pencil eraser can often remove the carbon buildup. If you have grooves or any other sort of deformation though you'd need something more.
Hey, sadly they haven't been made in over 20 years. I have however created a 3d printed variation. If you're interested, send me a message on Facebook.
hey I was just wondering, because I just ordered a traxxas slash 1/16 scale and it utilizes a brushed motor, I didn't know until after I ordered it so no turning back, I was wondering are the brushless better than the brushed because if so that might be a little bit of a dream crusher. but nice video I watched this to be better prepared for the traxxas when it arrives
In all honesty it depends on the use and desired effects. For example a brushed motor is fine for backyard bashing and lots of other uses. In general a brushless motor is smoother and requires less maintenance over time as they have less parts that can wear out. However, brushed motors are typically more resistant to things like water and mud. Either way, I'm sure you can probably put in a brushless motor system (you need a new ESC too) if you aren't happy with the setup it comes with. Good Luck!
hello friend I'm fascinated by the restoration of the engine 540 , I would buy a toolbox of those , but my English is bad and do not understand how search on EBAY
Man this Vid is great ! ' My only ? Is ' can u replace the brushes on a Titan 12T 550 motor ? I think the motors that u show are a bit more old school if u will . I have found out the hard way that the Traxxas 12 T motors that came w/ the truck I bought NEW in '08 are not strong enough to run that heavy of a truck for long . So now they say that it needs at least a 21 T motor ' that I had to buy ' after burning up countless # of 12 T motors at 25.00 a pop
you can give it a go with a proper brushed motor that you can open up like this one easily. I would not go lower then a 15 turn 540 motor though on the stock esc. theres also this which seems to have more torque but the same speed www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXJ766&P=ML
I got that from an rc oval racing shop about 15 years ago. I haven't been able to find another one since then. I've also tried to look into having them made but there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest I'm afraid.
Capacitors are on many brushed motors but that really depends a lot on the individual motor, speed controller and how the motor is being used. To further complicate matters, many speed controllers have the capacitor built in or as an add-on. Your best option is to follow the manufacturer recommendations for the motor and speed controller you are using.
+Troll gabe I'm afraid that is a sealed can motor. That means that they are not designed to be user serviceable. You can of course bend the tabs back to get the end off but often they are also bonded on. You are really better off just saving your money and getting a serviceable motor that has a removable endbell. Good Luck!
Troll gabe All the major brands do as well as many of the smaller brands, even HobbyKing has some. You just need to look for screws on the end where the wires connect. It's hard to give more detail without creating an exhaustive list of all the motors out there and I'm sure you can understand that that would be a huge list without even going into brushless motors.
Not really "Restoring". These motors are meant to be taken apart very very regularly. In old days, racers would do this before every heat. Looks like something was binding in the drive train If in doubt, under gear the motor, so it runs cooler. You can cut a baby sock and put a wet one over the end bell. This keeps the dirt out and super cools the end bell. If you foul up the commutator by momentary binding, you can just stick a narrow rubber eraser and erase out the foulness..
The hobby died when everything went to brushless and lipo. Used to run modified carpet oval. Most fun was rebuilding motors and building them trying to find more rip. Thanks trinity for ruining the hobby. Hope your courtside seats at the magic games are fun. Brushless was supposed to lower costs in the hobby. What a joke
Motor lathes and the skill of rebuilding brushed RC motors is almost a lost art. I'm 48yrs old and the younger guys "Kids" in RC have no idea now a days. Everything is brushless now for them. So when they get involved into a vintage class using brushed motors (say 19 turn) they are constantly buying new motors. They also always wonder why my original motor runs so fast and I never have to replace it. I tried explaining brush spring tension, cut / timed brushes, etc. I'm better off trying to explain nuclear fusion to my dog. Anyhow, excellent video! You got a new subscriber from across the pond..
I’m right there with you! Thanks for the sub!!
Time to move on with the times. Brushless motors are far superior in most applications. Brushed motors still have their place in niche applications, but for 99% of the RC hobby crowd (esp.l for the plane/heli/miniquad folks) brushless is better.
Gotta be patient Jim. Your wisdom is appreciated, just keep sharing the story.
There is something satisfying in rebuilding a motor (or any other piece of equipment for that matter). Informative video, thanks.
Straight up old school 👍👍 back in the day I used to keep Emory cloth in my tool box so I could clean my coms and brushes in-between races
You should sell this as an instructional DVD for brushed motor rc owners. Traxxas still sells several models equipped with the brushed motors for entry level consumers. This vid could save many hobbyists, quite a bit odf $$$. Great job!
But Trashas motors dont come apart (the few I came across). I run the other way when I see that name, maybe they are better now.
Awesome guide, I got an Tekin 35T back from 2011 and it died like 6 months ago. Decided to give this a try and guess what, now its working even better than before! Thanks a lot.
Really nice job at both explaining and demonstrating, step by step, how to disassemble and assemble a brushed motor, along with explaining each part. It was cool that you pulled out the lathe to clean and true the comm. Great video!!! Keep up the nice work. Very impressive. It's nice seeing "old-time" RC'ers and racers go back in time, when all we ran was old school brushed DC motors. Man, has time and technology changed, with RC vehicles!!!
Thanks!
Love the detail, and your straight-forward, easy-to follow explanations. THANKS!
I remember this. This is right up there with cutting down foam tires before a race. Also recall this was invaluable when a brushed motor would cost you $50-$80 and cutting the com and rebuilding was worth it. Nice video
thanks so much for posting this. I am learning a lot. My 20T atomic just quick and ruined my planned beach bash (Tamiya Hornet). So I am watching this and trying to figure out how to restore the motor. best!
I had no idea something like that little lathe even existed and that you could do this. Very cool stuff.
Re-winding brushless motors is a snap once you've got the technique down, but now I'm moving from RC flight into RC bash trucks and 'unfortunately' started life with brushed instead of spending the extra on brushless, and now it's rebuild/replace time. I _just_ invested into a nice 80a brushed ESC, too.
Tamiya and Tekin seem like the last manufactures on the Planet that make Excellent rebuildable brushed motors.
Fantastic video! Great explanations and demonstrations.
Thanks!
Very informative video, very useful and great job. Please post other videos on ex brushed motors and their related tools.
So nice to learn as much as possible. Thanks
Fantastic information and delivery. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you! I'm happy people are enjoying it and finding it helpful.
I've got an old school blue can Trinity motor with a gold plating things amazing
It is for fun and it makes more sense to reuse one think then just to pollute and waist .
I don't actually have any motors left with adjustable timing so I can't really get into that I'm afraid. What I can tell you is that motors that do have adjustable timing also have timing marks on the edge of the endbell where I showed the little tab that lines up with the can. Instead of that tab there are several marks that indicate positive, neutral and negative timing. If you post some pictures on our forum I might be able to help you more.
Great vid! Do you have any experience of using Tamiya commutator cleaning brushes? I’m trying to use the stand up cleaning brush kit on a Super Stock TZ - only replacing one motor brush (+ or -) at a time - but cannot get the motor to spin when the cleaning brush is attached. What am I doing wrong?
No I’m sorry I’m not familiar with those.
Very detailed ! Thumbs up and Thanks.. I just went out to get some used gear, so i can start rebuilding my old motors :)
But what about the brushes ?
And some say its best to break them in afterwards in destilled water ? Im just thinking, im running it in water anyway :)
Distilled water and regular tap water are not the same. Think of distilled water as "Pure" water, tap water or other water has minerals and stuff in it. I've used that method to break in grooved and tapered brushes for decades. Start the motor on a low RPM gradually raising the RPM up, only takes about 10 minutes.
This is very cool stuff:)
This is something I've been looking into for a while now as I mess with a variety of vintage RC from Tamiya to Pan cars. Are the brushes and armatures a universal thing or are they specific to each motor? Thank you for the excellent video I feel like I could buy the tools and do this myself now.
They are specific to the motor size, brush hood shape & motor setup. There are standup & laydown brushes which simply indicates whether the brush is is vertical or horizontal in the brush hood and the groove is cut accordingly of course. Other than that the brushes & springs are pretty much interchangeable, depending on the performance desired. There are some oddball motors out there that are different of course but that covers the majority.
do you have a link on to where i can buy the proper lathe machine, it would be really helpful. Thanks
Impressive Video..I was hope you would talk about spring tension like light weight to heavy weight springs cause I'm still a bit clueless on that...but thank you great video
+Brady Chamblin Thanks, glad it was a help! I am working on talking more about this topic now that I have my motor dyno back and setup so I will try to cover that. Stay tuned!
I'm watching this 10 years after the video and wish I had gotten into RC earlier and rebuilt these brushed motors for no other reason than I want one of those mini-lathes. Hell, I might just go on-lin and grab one of these little puppies for free. I imagine they could be used to build links for crawlers and other vehicles...
It's like a mini lathe. Very cool.
Very well done. Thank you.
The tools used in this video were used and were can I get them ?
Excellent video! So where can I get a motor lathe like yours? Thank you!
Question, I have a 45t tekin motor an I used liquid bearings synthetic oil with needle dispenser I used 3 drops on front an back bearings Do you think the oil went through bearings on my commutator? are you think in ok?
It should be ok, I doubt 3 drops is enough to get through the bearing and down on to the commutator. Even if it does get on the commutator it should just run poorly until the friction of the brushes on the commutator "wear" off the oil after a minute or two.
this is sooooo helpfull, thank you for making this vid...i just bought a trinity lathe
+TheOldsmobilekid Nice, where did you find it? Glad the video helped.
Hey how is called the amchine u use starting at 16:38 , this trinity thing?
Wouldn't you want to mark the can and end bell in order to reassemble in the exact same position and keep timing dead on with factory spec?
jeepcrawler88 What you are talking about is the "timing" of the motor and I only briefly talked about that in the video. If you look again you'll see when I talk about the little plastic tab on the endbell that slots into the can. That is how you check the "timing" on a stock motor. There's very little play in that tab so you don't really need to mark the can and endbell alignment. However on motors without that, there are timing marks that you should take a note of before you disassemble the motor.
Where did u u get little motor assembly tray
Great video very informative
would sanding down instead of turning effectively achieve the same thing?
+RockGodZeppelin In theory yes, but in practical use probably not. You would have to go to an extremely fine grit/grain paper to get it the same level of smoothness, something above a 1200 grit/grain because the lathe uses a diamond tip. In addition it would be difficult to get an even finish across the entire surface while maintaining the cylinder shape and not creating any flat spots.
However, one thing that I have seen work from time to time if it is just normal carbon buildup is a pencil eraser can often remove the carbon buildup. If you have grooves or any other sort of deformation though you'd need something more.
That was a great video thanks for sharing your knowledge.
is there a way to do it if you dont have a motor lathe ?
Not really but you can at least clean the commutator with a pencil eraser & clean the rest of the parts with an electronics safe spray.
@@Rcculture ive got a buddy thats going to sale me a lathe for 60 bucks only needs a new motor
Great! I use an old 80t integy crawler motor, but a 55t should be ok too.
Could you please explain how to set correct timing for brushed motor?
try to rewind it using a 22 guage copper wire, double wind..the winds
depends on how big the armature
Great video . thankyou
nice to se how you do it, will I see you at "Glöggrundan" 10/12 ? in Borås?
Please talk about brushes yo clarify what type of brushes needs to be used for the type of motor. Thank you
Excellent Video my friend.
Ciao ho visto che il taplo del motore si può ruotare a destra e sinistra a cosa serve?
great video! very helpful, thank you very much!
Very informative video. Great job!
Thanks!
Where did you get your motor parts tray i want one
Hey, sadly they haven't been made in over 20 years. I have however created a 3d printed variation. If you're interested, send me a message on Facebook.
This help me a lot thank you 🤙🏻
hey I was just wondering, because I just ordered a traxxas slash 1/16 scale and it utilizes a brushed motor, I didn't know until after I ordered it so no turning back, I was wondering are the brushless better than the brushed because if so that might be a little bit of a dream crusher. but nice video I watched this to be better prepared for the traxxas when it arrives
In all honesty it depends on the use and desired effects. For example a brushed motor is fine for backyard bashing and lots of other uses. In general a brushless motor is smoother and requires less maintenance over time as they have less parts that can wear out. However, brushed motors are typically more resistant to things like water and mud. Either way, I'm sure you can probably put in a brushless motor system (you need a new ESC too) if you aren't happy with the setup it comes with. Good Luck!
var köpte du din tekin motor??? har kollat överallt och finns ingen att köpa dom ifrån från svergie
Thank you.
I have a 550 titan that hasn't bee used is awhile, how do I clean if
I don’t have a Titan, but if you can’t open it up, you can spray it out with an electronics spray, or worst case, use some WD-40.
hello friend I'm fascinated by the restoration of the engine 540 , I would buy a toolbox of those , but my English is bad and do not understand how search on EBAY
+ivan GuerrillaOne They don't come up very often on eBay nowadays. But you can search for things like "Trinity Lathe" or "Cobra Lathe". Good luck!
Wow! Very professional, top noch video! Thank you sir!
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Man this Vid is great ! ' My only ? Is ' can u replace the brushes on a Titan 12T 550 motor ? I think the motors that u show are a bit more old school if u will . I have found out the hard way that the Traxxas 12 T motors that came w/ the truck I bought NEW in '08 are not strong enough to run that heavy of a truck for long . So now they say that it needs at least a 21 T motor ' that I had to buy ' after burning up countless # of 12 T motors at 25.00 a pop
you can give it a go with a proper brushed motor that you can open up like this one easily.
I would not go lower then a 15 turn 540 motor though on the stock esc.
theres also this which seems to have more torque but the same speed www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXJ766&P=ML
👍
where did you get the bearing / bushing tool
I got that from an rc oval racing shop about 15 years ago. I haven't been able to find another one since then. I've also tried to look into having them made but there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest I'm afraid.
RCCulture well if you ever decide to make a run I would get a couple
RCCulture well if you ever decide to make a run I would get a couple
It is from Acratech racing but I don't believe that they make them anymore sadly.
do they require compacitors
Capacitors are on many brushed motors but that really depends a lot on the individual motor, speed controller and how the motor is being used. To further complicate matters, many speed controllers have the capacitor built in or as an add-on. Your best option is to follow the manufacturer recommendations for the motor and speed controller you are using.
Awesome thanks buddy"
Hi mate You can sell this Trinity machine ?
I’m sorry no, I don’t sell them, I’m not selling mine & the only tip I can give on where to find one would be eBay.
an by the way great informative video "
I actually purchased it and the FXR as a combo pack from liquidrc.com.
nice vid!
+Great Cornholio Thanks!
Es el mejor metodo
+Luis Carlos Londoño Agreed and thanks!
17:48 u've gotta be kidding me. Bruh holy shit that tiny lathe machine jesus
the problem is that i cant open mine
i have a Traxxas titan 12t 550 Please i need your help for how to open it
+Troll gabe I'm afraid that is a sealed can motor. That means that they are not designed to be user serviceable. You can of course bend the tabs back to get the end off but often they are also bonded on. You are really better off just saving your money and getting a serviceable motor that has a removable endbell. Good Luck!
+RCCulture
what brand makes servisable motores?
Troll gabe All the major brands do as well as many of the smaller brands, even HobbyKing has some. You just need to look for screws on the end where the wires connect. It's hard to give more detail without creating an exhaustive list of all the motors out there and I'm sure you can understand that that would be a huge list without even going into brushless motors.
+RCCulture
thanks dude!!
ill replace it with one of those now!!
+RCCulture if you didnt told me this by this vídeo i couldnt find a way ad i would get into brushless
Not really "Restoring". These motors are meant to be taken apart very very regularly. In old days, racers would do this before every heat. Looks like something was binding in the drive train If in doubt, under gear the motor, so it runs cooler. You can cut a baby sock and put a wet one over the end bell. This keeps the dirt out and super cools the end bell. If you foul up the commutator by momentary binding, you can just stick a narrow rubber eraser and erase out the foulness..
O-O micro.... turning.... bench
Did my post get deleted? To many secrets given away?
The hobby died when everything went to brushless and lipo. Used to run modified carpet oval. Most fun was rebuilding motors and building them trying to find more rip. Thanks trinity for ruining the hobby. Hope your courtside seats at the magic games are fun. Brushless was supposed to lower costs in the hobby. What a joke