Stock Typhon 3S motor - yes, another “it’s too hot” post

[unclebrudy]

This is kind of weird. And sorry to bore you all with another one of these posts. But I’m seriously at a loss.

I have two 3S Typhons, one I’ve been working on for my son. Both have stock motors with VXB Bearings swapped in. Both have been fine until tonight.

My son’s was making a screeching sound at full throttle so I assumed the slipper was loose. That was fine so I opened the diff cases. Normal. I run the motor by itself (no pinion, no heatsink, no motor mount, etc.) and it sounds fine but it gets crazy hot in my hand almost immediately. Within ~10 seconds of full throttle I can’t touch it without pain. So I get the temp gun out, reassemble everything, and run it. After 5 minutes on 3S around my street it’s ~210F at the cap.

Sheesh. So, I take the motor out again, disassemble. Clean inside. Everything looks fine, bearings are not seized and are smooth. Reassemble and run it, same. For good measure I swap the bearings with brand new Jim’s bearings - still the same.

Thoughts? I took my good motor and swapped it into his car, all is well, so I have no idea how else to troubleshoot.

Thanks all.

The above picture isn’t illustrating what came out of the motor - that’s pieces from my freshly asphalted street that fell out of the body. And yes motor’s plastic wire harness broke a while back as you can see.

 

[Ari33]

If its not a mechanical/bearing related, it might be a esc/motor timing issue.
Squealing at full throttle is usually the esc getting out of sync with the motor, I have come across it when rewinding cd rom motors and leaving the standard magnets in.

Lowering the timing should stop it but if you cant do that in the esc settings I'm not sure where you would go from there.
It also shouldnt happen in the first place, especially on a manufacturers stock combo..

Is it still under warranty?

Can you upload a quick video?

 

[bicketybam]

I'm not sure what the issue is bit you do not want to run your motor without the pinion. Next time keep the pinion on. I've read that running the motor with nothing attached is bad for it.

 

[Ari33]

I'm not sure what the issue is bit you do not want to run your motor without the pinion. Next time keep the pinion on. I've read that running the motor with nothing attached is bad for it.

Yep, good point.

Without a load it could spin up to 30-35% faster. If your motors max rpm is below that figure you can end up overheating (which alters kV) or even slinging magnets.. and then its bye bye motor.


You can check the maximum voltage you can apply from the manufacturter's max RPM, and the motor's speed constant, kV.

eg if max revs = 50,000 RPM
and kV = 2050
then max voltage = 50000/2050 = 24.39v

 

[DoNoHarm]

Yes, running a motor not connected to the vehicle isn’t the best thing for it. But it definitely won’t get hot. And it definitely won’t hit 210F!! My shorted out traxxas motor did the same thing. Do a resistance check on all 3 wires. I bet it’ll turn out that it is no longer in spec. That screeching might be esc FETs though... so if you have a bad esc it could be causing all of this.

 

[jondilly1974]

Can you plug that motor into the other rig/ESC and see if it is a motor or ESC issue? Would be a good start. Keep swapping parts till you figure it out.

 

[unclebrudy]

If its not a mechanical/bearing related, it might be a esc/motor timing issue.
Squealing at full throttle is usually the esc getting out of sync with the motor, I have come across it when rewinding cd rom motors and leaving the standard magnets in.

Lowering the timing should stop it but if you cant do that in the esc settings I'm not sure where you would go from there.
It also shouldnt happen in the first place, especially on a manufacturers stock combo..

Is it still under warranty?

Can you upload a quick video?

Thanks for the feedback. It’s my understanding you can’t adjust timing on these motors/ESC, and I will upload a video in a bit. It is still under warranty - it’s less than a month old.

I'm not sure what the issue is bit you do not want to run your motor without the pinion. Next time keep the pinion on. I've read that running the motor with nothing attached is bad for it.

Had no idea, thanks. I won’t do that again, really only reason I did that was during the process of elimination. Thanks Bam.

Yes, running a motor not connected to the vehicle isn’t the best thing for it. But it definitely won’t get hot. And it definitely won’t hit 210F!! My shorted out traxxas motor did the same thing. Do a resistance check on all 3 wires. I bet it’ll turn out that it is no longer in spec. That screeching might be esc FETs though... so if you have a bad esc it could be causing all of this.

It honestly sounds mechanical (I’ll figure out how to upload a video soon) but you guys know better than me. The motor and ESC are less than a month old which is troubling.

Can you plug that motor into the other rig/ESC and see if it is a motor or ESC issue? Would be a good start. Keep swapping parts till you figure it out.

Thanks Jon. That was a good idea. I swapped it into the known-good Typhon and it’s still overheating. Hit about 205F after a few minutes on 3S with an ambient of 55F. I actually swapped just the motor, not the spur or anything else from the misbehaving assembly. Sounds like this is just a bum motor issue.

 

[Cheapbastard]

Thanks Jon. That was a good idea. I swapped it into the known-good Typhon and it’s still overheating. Hit about 205F after a few minutes on 3S with an ambient of 55F. I actually swapped just the motor, not the spur or anything else from the misbehaving assembly. Sounds like this is just a bum motor issue.

Could just put the under performing Surpass 3665 motor you have in gear it up and heat it up until it dies.

 

[jondilly1974]

Thanks for the feedback. It’s my understanding you can’t adjust timing on these motors/ESC, and I will upload a video in a bit. It is still under warranty - it’s less than a month old.

Had no idea, thanks. I won’t do that again, really only reason I did that was during the process of elimination. Thanks Bam.

It honestly sounds mechanical (I’ll figure out how to upload a video soon) but you guys know better than me. The motor and ESC are less than a month old which is troubling.

Thanks Jon. That was a good idea. I swapped it into the known-good Typhon and it’s still overheating. Hit about 205F after a few minutes on 3S with an ambient of 55F. I actually swapped just the motor, not the spur or anything else from the misbehaving assembly. Sounds like this is just a bum motor issue.

Yep sounds like a motor. Easy when you have another rig to swap parts with. ??

 

[rcNOLA]

Thanks for the feedback. It’s my understanding you can’t adjust timing on these motors/ESC, and I will upload a video in a bit. It is still under warranty - it’s less than a month old.

Had no idea, thanks. I won’t do that again, really only reason I did that was during the process of elimination. Thanks Bam.

It honestly sounds mechanical (I’ll figure out how to upload a video soon) but you guys know better than me. The motor and ESC are less than a month old which is troubling.

Thanks Jon. That was a good idea. I swapped it into the known-good Typhon and it’s still overheating. Hit about 205F after a few minutes on 3S with an ambient of 55F. I actually swapped just the motor, not the spur or anything else from the misbehaving assembly. Sounds like this is just a bum motor issue.

The blx 100 isn't the most reliable piece of hardware. I put a trx vxl in mine and haven't had any problems for months