motor wire length?? HELP?
 

I've read a few places that you should never cut the motor wires on a brushless system.

That being said, my lhs owner was replacing the connectors on my vxl-motor for mamba 4mm connectors and instead of unsoldering them, he just cut off the plug and then soldered the new connector on.....did this just ruin my motor?

help?

True for the most part. The wires on most motors are simply extensions of the coil wires and have a varnish coating and only the last ~1/4" is exposed wire suitable for soldering. If you cut that part off, you'll have a heck of a time soldering them. There are ways to do this, but much easier to just desolder the existing connector rather than cutting them off.

The Mamba Max and new Castle Neu motors (and maybe some others) use noodle hookup wire. This wire is connected to the coils inside the motor, so it's OK to cut those if needed.

Other motors, like Novak, have solder tabs on the motor so you can use whatever wire you want. Therefore, it's OK to cut those.

No matter what, if he ruined the motor, he gets to pay for it. :smile:

The fact that he was able to solder a new connection on would lead me to believe not... What you are worried about as brian said it cutting back to the windings - these are covered in a type of laquer that the solder won't adhere to so you end up with a dry joint.

You should be fine... ATB

[offtopic] What does "ATB" mean? [/offtopic]

i'm kinda new to the brushless stuff...when you say cutting back to the windings, do you mean ... beyond where they are in the endcap of the motor?

I watched him solder on the new plugs, and they were soldered on with ease and are strong...I had just read that the wire length might be tied into the timing and cutting them could result in voltage spikes and timing issues.

Traxxas didn't even know for sure....but the tech i spoke to said he was kinda new to thr brushless setup...might have been a nitro guy filling in. man...this blows. :(

ATB - All The Best

Nothing on timing etc or resistance for the motor - If you look inside a motor you will see all the windings - Some manufacturers exend these out the can far enough (1inch or 2) so that you just solder to them. They strip the nastey varnish like stuff off maybe .5 inch to enable the solder to stick.

If you cut too far back (beyond the varnish striped bit) and you are left with wire you can't solder to - you sound like your fine

Thank You.

lol, thanks. I'm gonna add that to the acronyms thread. :smile:

Brian...

here's the exploded view of the vxl motor......are these the solder tabs you were referring to like the novak's have?

http://www.traxxas.com/products/elec...tler_trans.pdf

So these would be OK to cut? Sorry to seem thickheaded...i just wanna make sure. :)

Just got off the phone with another traxxas tech....i have an inability to let things go until i have found a defiinitive answer.......LOL....anywho, this guy knew his stuff.

He said the motor wires are soldered to the tabs, and can be cut...

he said just make sure they are close to the same length because they fire in sequence...(whatever that means) and if one is wayyyyy longer than hte other it might cause an issue.

thanks guys you were tons of help...it's good to know people like you are willing to lend a helping hand.