Fried my Novak?

[Traxxas Addict]

Last night I was doing some speed runs when all of a sudden I experienced a loss of power. The car would run, but it almost sounded like something was slipping. It would do this for a few moments and then all of a sudden I would get full power back. Then it came back (lost power again) for a longer period of time and I decided to shut it down.

I suspect I may have overheated the engine. It had that funny smell to it and the engine was damn hot! I couldn't take a temp reading as it was late at night and my themp gage was on my dresser in my bedroom where my wife was sleeping.

I do have it geared pretty high at 16/65 but I've been running it for a few weeks at this gearing with no problems. Other than snapping the pin that holds the slipper hub in place and a few axels.

It might be time to step up and go for the mmm/neu combo. I'll fire the car up when I get home tonight and see what's up. Anyone ever experience this before?

Thanks in advance!

[BrianG]

Never ran Novak, but if the motor got too hot, you might have at least partially demagnetized the rotor. When this happens, it pulls more current to produce the same output power, which heats it up more, which demags it more, and so on. While this is happening, all that extra power shows up as motor heat, but little if any speed output.

You could either get a new rotor (if in fact it is the problem), or get a MMM/Neu combo. With the MMM/Neu combo, prepare for more broken drivetrain parts and it is a "bit" more powerful.

[Traxxas Addict]

Hi Brian,

Yeah, I'm thinking that may be the problem. I have a back-up 6.5 system and I'll swap the rototr out and see if that makes a difference.

Problem is that if I have to gear down the car will be too slow for my liking. So, I'm thinking it may be time to go the MMM/Neu combo. Tekno has a 1515/1y/q that looks good or i can save myself $100.00 and go for the 2200 KV Castle combo.

[suicideneil]

16/65 is much too tall- 12-15/68 is what Novak, and everyone else recommends, so if that wont give you enough speed, you know what to do (and I dont mean gearing up, lol)...

[Traxxas Addict]

I guess it's good bye Novak and hello MMM! :)

[rrgirgis]

i also ran a novak hv 6.5 in my e-revo and ran into a similar problem where i would throttle and it sounded like it was slipping.. turned out to be the rotor, it some how separated, the shaft from the magnet around it...

fortunatley i live in so cali and was able to go to novak and they were nice to swap it out for me, the novak rep mentioned they were having a problem with this happening on some of there 5mm rotors..

yes +1 the gearing for the novaks are very strick 12-16/68 only...

[Traxxas Addict]

In this case it was 100% my own fault as I had it geared way high. I'd feel guilty trying to get Novak to replace it. I have a backup engine to use in the mean time. Still want the MMM/Neu combo.

[rrgirgis]

good reason to get MMM, it is a beast