Help!! Motor Overheating

[chaser25]

Hey guys, I am having an issue with motors overheating.

Axial SCX10 Honcho TR. I have installed Mickey Thompson Baja 2.2, MIP drive shaft, Axial steering knuckles, and aluminum suspension and steering links lately. Stock ESC, servo, and gearing. I recently
noticed that the motor is overheating. The motor I was using when I noticed this issue was a Venom Fireball 50t. I figured maybe it was the motor so i purchased a Reedy Stockstar 27t. After running the rig for about 5 minutes I am still having this issue. Any suggestions?

Thanks for the help. Love this forum!

[T3rry]

you will need to gear down huge going from a 50t to 27t.

also it's a question of what do you consider overheating? most motors work just fine hot, not too hot, but if you can hold your finger on the can for more than 10 seconds, it's not overheating.

[chaser25]

What do you suggest?

[chaser25]

I can hold my finger down for about 2 sec before pulling it off. Thats after 5 minutes of runtime. It also acts a little glitchy at times.

[The_Hun]

you probably need a BEC. your esc is probably having to work too hard to power the motor and servo. Hence the glitchy jittery behavior. The BEC will allow your ESC to focus its power on the motor and not the servo. It should fix your issues.

[chaser25]

I will give that a shot. Thanks!

[fordguy8790]

What kind of battery are you using? Also, check the mesh in your spur/pinion... if it is too tight, the motor will be working overtime and getting hot. Make sure the drivetrain moves freely as well... spin the spur gear with the motor off and you should be able to turn the wheels without much difficulty.

[TrickyD]

What kind of battery are you using? Also, check the mesh in your spur/pinion... if it is too tight, the motor will be working overtime and getting hot. Make sure the drivetrain moves freely as well... spin the spur gear with the motor off and you should be able to turn the wheels without much difficulty.

+1 on this my honcho motor recently started running hot and I found it was just binding from a bent shaft in the trans.

[Magnat007]

I am going to have to agree with fordguy8790.. Something is not right somewhere in the drive train..
I am running 1.9's with the Fireball 50T and she is cool as a cucumber after 30mins of slow crawling work.

The 50T can power a Proper rock crawler with 2.2's without heat issues so something is wrong with the driveline.. something causing resistance.

Loosen the motor, run a piece of normal A4 paper between the pinion and the spur, tighten the motor up and feed the paper through the gearing to remove it.
The width of paper should give you the proper spacing between the pinion and the spur..(roughly .5 of a mm)

Then check the rotation of the wheels and drive shafts make sure there is no binding (hard to rotate by hand) To do this..
Pick the vehicle up and spin the spur gear by hand with the power off...It should be easy to rotate..

[TrickyD]

Loosen the motor, run a piece of normal A4 paper between the pinion and the spur, tighten the motor up and feed the paper through the gearing to remove it.
The width of paper should give you the proper spacing between the pinion and the spur..(roughly .5 of a mm) -magnat007

I still use this on my 1/8th nitro. The easiest and most accurate way of setting mesh correctly.

[chaser25]

Will do. Thanks!

[chaser25]

I am running nimh 3300mah.

[chaser25]

Gear mesh is done and correct, no binding. Still getting hot and so is my ESC. Can I install a BEC if my ESC has been plasti dipped? Maybe it's my ESC?

[tacticalteck]

take the motor of the mount and hold it while giving it throttle kinda alternating speeds and if it still overheats i would bet its an esc prob if not look for binding throuout the truck hope this helps!

[Greenie]

hummmmm.....
Ok, so...., errr, only thing left is the drive line itself.
so, take the motor back out again, and try spinning the drive line by hand. it should be smooth, and clunk free.
it should be fairly resistance free.

also, check all your bearings. if one has let go, or rusted solid, that too will cause major problems too.
only takes a little bit of rust in the bearing to cause the bearing to start being an issue.

hummm..... other then that, yeah!!! i'm out of ideas sorry dude!!!!!!

[TrickyD]

Yea, I'm having a similar issue. I was in a small dirt pile and got bound up and heard a series of clicks. I thought it was just the slipper or I spun a gear. After pulling the tranny apart and greasing it seemed smooth, I noticed my spur was a little chewed but not too bad so I cleaned it up a little with a hobby knife. I got it all back together and still binding somewhere... I pulled both axles apart, re-greased, checked bearings, etc... I'm still getting small catch in wheel rotation when reassembled. Almost seems like a bent shaft but I can't locate it. I've been in nitro a couple years and know little about electric motors, any chance this could be the motor giving up maybe? I've heard a few people mention the motor not lasting but most say the stock 27 works well. Thought I'd just throw these questions in this post, maybe we can both get it figured out. My motor is running hot also so maybe we have the same issue, a bind somewhere....

[VolvoRC]

the one thing i would try before running and buying a bec is try to use a less toothed pinion, if you are running the stock 20 tooth with the 87 tooth spur that might be why your 50t motor over heated, try running a 14 tooth pinion and see what happens.

[Greenie]

and drive shaft angels, if they are too steep, they will bind at high angels
(i forgot about them!!)

if they are, you'll need to clock your axles.

[chaser25]

I've got a 81t spur on a 27t motor. What pinion should I use?

[TrickyD]

I've got a 81t spur on a 27t motor. What pinion should I use?

The stock motor is also a 27T and stock gearing is 20t pinion/87t spur. I finally located my bind, believe it or not I actually tweaked the shaft that runs thru the spur gear. I'm amazed that bent before the plastic spur failed but it did, on a loose pile of dirt no less. It's very slight but enough to make the spur gear "wobble" and bind every half turn. Before I get accused of not setting the slipper properly I'd like to note that I had done nothing to the truck when this happened, it was bone stock. I would pull the tranny apart and check all the shafts and plastic gears first. I've had mine apart about 15 times in the last 2 days checking and rechecking, replacing bearings, etc... I thought for sure it had to be a plastic gear or bearing out, I never dreamed the metal would have bent before the plastic gears stripped. By the way, anyone know if I can just buy that shaft? I haven't found it alone yet. Just thought I'd share my experience to see if it helps you out. Good Luck!

[VolvoRC]

i like running either 12 or 14 tooth pinions