Granite New Castle Motor for my Granite

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bicketybam

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Arrma RC's
  1. BigRock 4x4
  2. Granite
  3. Infraction
  4. Kraton 8S
  5. Kraton 6s
  6. Kraton 4s
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I got up this morning and decided to take the Granite for a little backyard bash. My current set up is a Castle Mamba X ESC paired with a 1410-3800Kv motor running 3s. Gearing is 32p13/57. At one point I was running 17/57 gearing and was able to clock a top speed of 53 mph. The biggest problem I had was motor heat. I lowered the pinion to 13t with the hopes of lowering motor temps. In any event, this morning's session ended after about 12 minutes when the motor hit the temp limit (there was also some noticeable clicking coming from the front diff - more on that later). At this point I took it inside and downloaded the datalog.

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The motor hit a max of 193.3 degrees and the Mamba-X hit 195. Just too hot. I went to Castle's website and looked up the 1410-3800Kv motor. Turns out they recommend 2-3s for 4wd vehicles weighing up to 4 pounds. 2s for 4WD vehicles weighing up to 6.5 pounds. So there is my issue. Granite is a 6.5 lb truck and the motor is not designed to run on 3s in vehicles weighing more than 4 lbs.

So off to the LHS to see what they had. After some debate I decided on a Castle 1512 2560Kv motor that can run 2-4s. I thought this was a good motor to run on 3s. I figured if I went back to the 17t pinion, performance would be close to the 13t on the smaller motor.

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Swapping out the 1410-3800Kv motor and installing the 1512-2650Kv motor was pretty straight forward. I did have to take the Mamba-X off in order to fit the new motor. Future removals will require me to removed the top of the receiver box so I don't have to re-tape the ESC every time.
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Now here was the first issue I ran in to. When I went to plug the motor leads into the ESC, they were way too big.
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So back to the LHS for some new connectors and I was in business. I got everything buttoned up and I went out to test. Performance was nearly identical to what I had in the morning. Definitely more torque though. As I ran the truck through my bash area the clicking from the front diff got worse and worse. Eventually I was left with a RWD granite and with the amount of power I was pushing it was basically undriveable. I took it inside to check out the front diff and to check the data log. Max motor temp was 153 and max ESC temp was 173 degrees. I was pleased. Now for the diff:

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I thought it was going to be missing teeth on the ring gear but instead it was melted teeth on the input gear.I had a broken input gear laying around so I quickly moddded it up with a wheel axle and I was back in business. So back out I go and 8 minutes later I was FRONT wheel drive only. I was already running a modded rear input shaft so I was baffled. Back behing the wall I go. I pull out the rear diff and this is what I find:
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I never liked how close the hole for the pin was to the end of the plastic. So much for that. I made a new hole farther back in what appeared to be a solid piece if the plastic shaft and threw it back together. I went outside to test and it lasted 3 minutes. Of course no one has AR310802 in stock. I was able to find someone selling complete diffs in EBAY (brand new). Of course I don't need the entire diff and it's twice the price, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

So long story short, I really like what little I got to test of the 1512-2850 motor. It should give me the performance I am looking for on 3s while maintaining reasonable motor temps. My only concern is whether the amount of torque from the motor will be too much for the driveline. I really would like metal diffs!
 
That's great info Ed.

I finally put a 3s in mine Wednesday. With 91/15 gearing on my 3000kv, I am hitting about 30mph. It's a touch faster than the 91/22 on 2s which was 27 mph. The wheelies though... I need a wheelie bar now. I have my ESC punch set to 2 out of 4 and it will still go on it's roof if I'm not careful.

My temps were in the 150s on the motor and like 110 ESC. Your ESC temps seem super hot.
 
That's great info Ed.

I finally put a 3s in mine Wednesday. With 91/15 gearing on my 3000kv, I am hitting about 30mph. It's a touch faster than the 91/22 on 2s which was 27 mph. The wheelies though... I need a wheelie bar now. I have my ESC punch set to 2 out of 4 and it will still go on it's roof if I'm not careful.

My temps were in the 150s on the motor and like 110 ESC. Your ESC temps seem super hot.

I have an adapter between my battery and the esc (deans to xt60). I am going to solder an xt60 to the esc and see if that helps.FWIW, the esc doesn't feel like it's that hot.I am getting the temps from the data log. I may use my temp gun next time and see where I am at.

I would get a 32p spur/pinion in there and gear it more for speed. You are at a 6.07 ratio. With the 3000Kv motor, I would shoot for something around 4. 15/57 in 32p would do it. That's what I was running.
 
I do want 32p gears but am debating on doing Yeti mod or just buying the BLX stuff.
 
Maybe Yeti mod and adjustable BLX mount would be the best route then.
 
Maybe Yeti mod and adjustable BLX mount would be the best route then.

The best would probably be the new BLX slipper/engine mount assembly. But it can't hurt trying the cheap option first :)
 
Well I was able to do some more testing with the new motor today. It started with me running a 3s pack in my Senton, which now has the 1410-3800Kv paired with a Castle SW4 esc. That was a lot of fun until the rear input shaft let go. So I took it inside and modded it with the wheel axle and installed the diff into my Granite (poor Senton).

The 1512 motor is definitely overkill, lol. I need to dial up the punch control. It’s so easy to turtle the truck. I ran the rest of the 3s pack and at the very end I broke an arm that runs from the servo saver to the steering arm. Everything in the driveline held up. A small victory! I Krazy glued the broken part and will try it in the morning. My new diffs show up Monday so hopefully both the Granite and the Senton will be back in business.

If I get the new Granite BLX, I’ll probably swap this esc/motor combo into it and run 4s. I just can’t help myself!
 
I have a spare AR310802 input shaft.

If you want, I can ship it to you and return the favor for the spur gear.

Let me know.
 
Dang - you are burning thru the diff pinions!

Makes me think I am not beating my truck hard enough - I have only stripped one... LOL

That was my mistake. I hadn't been drilling them out with a 1/4 inch drill bit. I was using a size down and really wedging the wheel axle in there. I could never get it centered properly and the elliptical rotation is what stripped those teeth. I also was using a 2.5mm pin instead of a 2mm pin. I bet that is why my other one failed.
 
Instead of using a wheel axle, I modded mine with a section of the red aluminum shaft from the slipper clutch assembly. It's the exact diameter needed once you drill out the gear. Being aluminum, it was easy to drill through once inserted to put a grub screw in to retain it.
 
Instead of using a wheel axle, I modded mine with a section of the red aluminum shaft from the slipper clutch assembly. It's the exact diameter needed once you drill out the gear. Being aluminum, it was easy to drill through once inserted to put a grub screw in to retain it.
The next time you have your diff apart, I'd like to see a picture of that.
 
The next time you have your diff apart, I'd like to see a picture of that.
Who's your buddy? Who's your pal? :D

The grub is actually centered even though it doesn't look like it. I tried just 2 part epoxy at first in the grooves of the shaft, but it broke within 2 minutes on 2s. The grub has been holding up on 3s with my low gearing for now.
 

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Who's your buddy? Who's your pal? :D

The grub is actually centered even though it doesn't look like it. I tried just 2 part epoxy at first in the grooves of the shaft, but it broke within 2 minutes on 2s. The grub has been holding up on 3s with my low gearing for now.

When you have that in your diff and it's all put back together, when you rotate the drive shafts does that fabricated input shaft rotate in a perfect circle like the stock one does? That is what I could never accomplish with the wheel axles. It would always be off center and when it rotates it rotates all cockeyed. Follow?
 
It does. I'm surprised that I hand drilled it that straight. On a flat surface, I held the gear by the teeth with the rubber grip handle end of some channel locks while I drilled it.

It's been in my diff for at at least 20 minutes on 3s on pavement doing back flips from launch. It's also had quite a few 2s and some other 3s runs on it.
 
It does. I'm surprised that I hand drilled it that straight. On a flat surface, I held the gear by the teeth with the rubber grip handle end of some channel locks while I drilled it.

It's been in my diff for at at least 20 minutes on 3s on pavement doing back flips from launch. It's also had quite a few 2s and some other 3s runs on it.

That’s awesome!

I went to a BMX park today with my Kraton and my Granite. First time ever at one of those. I spent the majority of the time on my Kraton but I eventually broke and switched to the Granite. The modded shaft I put in last night held up great and I’m running massive torque with grippy tires. That little Granite can fly! If my ESC doesn’t didn't come unglued, I would have ran it longer. The Kraton is easier to control because of its size and weight but I do love the Granite :)
 
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