Just wanted to share my bad news...

Well I bought a crt .5 for Christmas. It is crispy new and I love the look of its quality parts. I say "look" b/c thats all I have done with it is look at it on my shelf.

The first time I hooked my MM to it I was pleasantly surprised that I must have messed up the esc/motor last time I had it hooked up to my T4... shattered a cvd, reason to the upgrade to the CRT.5. I was getting alot of heat while coasting around the house and knew something was wrong. When I called to my dismay my warranty was expired by two weeks. When I spoke to castle they said to send it in and they would take a looksy. The incredible staff at Castle took a look and said the motor was toast and the ESC can be fixed. I waited a couple weeks and when I called back they told me that the new motors arrived today and they packaged up my repaired esc and sent a NIB 5700 motor that day. Wow they did not even charge me the $50 EACH replacement/repair charge as they said they would. I was thrilled to say the least.

So things have been busy for me and a week or so later I finally tonight got a chance to hook back up the motor. I wired everything in and all seemed well. When I first lightly pulled the trigger it came to life. But when I set it down I noticed that the throttle was reversed. No biggie. When corrected I noticed that I had much more throttle in reverse then forward. So I said hmmm that seems weird. I thought I should really go check the settings. I know I should have first but when I heard the lipo cut-off chirp for 3s I thought might as well give it a whirl. I picked up the truggy ad just to check my assumption in the air I tested forward...it seemed slow and the tires were barely ballooning. So then I pulled reverse and it ballooned. Then all of a sudden I heard a crack as the pinion hits the wall whizzing right by my head. Wow that I thought. Then I got really sad when I noticed that my BRAND NEW motor's shaft was missing....oh yea it snapped. I felt sick.

Now I have never had a bent shaft nor have one snap. The only thing I can figure is that the Mod one pinion sleeve shifted and *snap-o-rama.* The shaft has a clean break and the metal shaft looks to be a composite of some sort. I am figuring this is my fault and am not saying its a bad motor. Its just when Castle creations was soooooo generous to fix it without charge it makes me sick that this could happen to me. Man this sucks and is a blast of bad luck that has come during a time that I cant even afford to pay attention. I even sold my new 8ight build to a guy on here just b/c I could not afford to finish it.

Anyway I feel better just typing this. I dont know what to do. Call castle and tell them what happened or just buy a medusa...a motor that is better suited for this rig anyway and one that I dont have to run a sleeve with.

Disgusted *sigh*

Get the Medusa. The MM motors are underpowered for a CRT.5. I would still talk to the castle guys and see if they will warranty it. Since you didn't get much use from it, it may have been due to a weak spot in the shaft.

[glassdoctor]

Other motor shafts I have seen snap looked funky too... on a Hacker

Do you guys think it is my fault or what. I mean I dunno what I could have done different...loctite and snug as fawk, mess was perfect. . I am going to order a medusa tomarrow. I am contemplating calling Castle. But to be honest I really have nothing coming as far as warranty as they fixed it out of warranty period already just out of kindness and quality customer service. I feel really bummed. Pictures coming next...

You can kinda see the sparkles in the interior of the shaft like a composite of some sort...I dunno what they are made of. Also that it broke right at the end of the flat part of the shaft. Tell me what you guys think. I will call them in the afternoon after my job interview.

[Unsullied_Spy]

That looks like a material or production problem to me, but in truth a 1/8" shaft is NOT thick enough for a CRT .5. If you have the normal chassis with 2.2 Buggy wheels the 5700 will be OK for now but still rather underpowered. As others have said, get a Medusa motor. Myself and most other E-CRT .5 owners use the 50mm Afterburner v2 rated for 3300KV with the 5mm shaft. You would be hard-pressed to break the shaft on this motor and it has a TON more torque than that Castle motor. The Castle motors are great in 1/10th scale 2wd, touring cars, etc. but CRT .5s need something a little more beefy.

[magman]

I agree that that looks like a material problem, not necessarily your fault. I have 2 crt.5 one w/a 50 series 3300kv Medusa on 2s, which is my daughters, and it goes pretty well. The Medusa is a very good motor for the crt.5 as stated by others.

Sorry to hear of you prob. though. At some point, we can all relate to your pain...hang in there!

Well I have two calls to make today. One to get my medusa and one to Castle. The weird thing is that the truggy was in the air with no resistance to the wheels when it happened. Its very strange.

[Arct1k]

Not really when you braked you had the full momentum of the wheel stopping instantly. That probably put a lot of shock on the shaft...

I sheared of my 1/8 shaft of my feigao 7L on a CRT.5. It really needs a 5mm shaft,

good point.

Well just got off the phone with Thomas at Castle. He said that its more pressure when throttling off the ground then when on. Although he did say this does not always cause a broken shaft it can happen. He knew EXACTLY where it broke before I said. He said on line #5 in what not do in the instructions, never to give full throttle in mid air do to extreme tire ballooning...I said that I was not at full throttle and that I had read that as not to do as could cause injury due to tire ballooning. He said the said this stated to protect themselves against tire failure and shaft breaking. He said no big deal, just send it in and we will get another one out to me after they get some more in as they are out right at the moment. I told them I really had nothing coming as I was out of warranty already when they fixed it last time...he said they would probably still just replace due to failure under warranty. Wow. They are just a fantastic company IMO. We laughed at my unfortunate happening and never getting to even run it. I followed by telling him how awesome they are and that I would never do it again.

I did tell him that it was in a CRT .5 when I began the story. He did not even mention that being the problem, but I am positive that the load of the beefy
4wd did its part and I therefore will never run one of these in it again. I will keep the new motor in the T4.

Paul

[lincpimp]

Give castle a ring, they will most likely send you another motor if you send that one back to them...

The medusa 50mm with 5mm shaft is a better choice. I have had 1/8 shafts break before, and they all look cast on the inside.

I recently upgraded my hacker c50 maxx to a 5mm shaft... That was 75 bucks. I tried to weld another piece of 6mm steel to the broken shaft, but that did not go very well, as I had no real way to jig it all togehter to get the new piece straight. I was going to have the machinist turn the new piece back down to 5mm when I had it welded. I may still do this, but do not have much use for the motor right now. And I have 130 bucks in it, which is more than they sell for used... Oh well.

[BL_RV0]

I have snapped the shaft of a mamba motor twice and castle did not replace it free of charge, unfortunately.

Well like I said, he said they would "probably" take care of it. Who knows but I am not counting on anything. I just know they have been more then generous in the past and I will still stand behind thier products even if they dont simply based on my personal experiences with thier service and support. Only time will tell now and I will keep you all updated.