Blown Motor Now What?

[cjperry81]

Hey Everyone, I’ve been doing slot cars for a couple years, still a rookie in my opinion. I’ve been having issues with my Pikes Peak Torino by Carerra. It’s been bogging down a ton on just on our little scalextric home track mainly in turns. I keep thinking the guide blade is too big for the scalextric track. I got some new slicks for it for Christmas so I took it to the local hobby shop to get some laps on a big track. The motor burned out on lap number 1 and a very gentle speed. One of the local gurus at the shop said the motor was toast.

I oil my cars, general maintenance, and I don’t abuse it. Only drive it once or twice a month. First any ideas why this would happen on a gently used car? Next I guess I’m going to need a new motor, so can anyone give me advice. At this point I’d be fine with loading it with power and putting more magnet in it just for kicks. I don’t know the first thing about swapping a motor. Any advice would be much appreciated.

My sons car also blew a motor today. It takes a lot of abuse since he’s 8, but I still try my best to maintain it. It was an expensive day at the track today.

[4424ever]

First thought Carrera guides ARE TOO BIG FOR SCALY TRACK they must be trimmed to operate properly. You should be able to push the car by hand around the whole track without it binding. If it is binding it’s possible the motor has heated up too much trying to push the car around the track setting it up for failure?
Second thought is be careful oiling the motors it takes very little to lube them and over oiling is common. This can foul the commutator on the armature causing the motor to smoke and short out. You can pull the motor and flush it out with alcohol or brake cleaner to see if it comes around just make sure it’s dry and relubed before you apply power to it
In general the Carrera motors are pretty reliable and trouble free so I wonder about 2 bad ones that close together

[SuperSlab]

Wow, two dead motors sounds most unusual. The one thing that caught my eye is the fact that you oil your cars. Motors are VERY sensitive to oil getting on the commutator, hence one drop of oil in a blue moon on motor bearings/bushings is more than enough. I actually almost never oil motors for this very reason. How much oil did you use how often and how did you apply it?

The bogging down is also of concern as it sounds like frequent overloading might be a possibility as well. I will readily admit to knowing nothing about magnet racing (some brutally honest friends might say that comment applies to all my racing... 😏) but: Have you added magnets to the car? And what is the ground clearance like? Reducing the clearance can radically increase the downforce and cause the chassis to drag on the track.

These are the first couple of things that sprang to mind.

[cjperry81]

When I first starting out a guy told me I needed to oil mine so that’s the only real reason I’ve done it. I really only do one drop in key spots about every other time I run them, which is maybe once a month. I am 100% willing to take advice. I’m still super new to the game.

[cjperry81]

Sorry I meant to comment on clearance. Its the carerra torino to the rear end looks like its way up in the air, but the bottom of the chassis had a bit of a wedge shape so the bottom of the chassis is fairly low. I have just the stock magnet in it. I only have two carerra cars and they are both of the nascar variety so idk if that is normal ground clearance for a carerra but they both have that wedge shape in the bottom of them.

[Ragtopman]

Sorry about your motors and not sure what’s is going on but I would be more than happy to send you a few free of charge as I have a bunch just lying around as I have replaced a bunch of my Carrera cars with different motors over the years. Just help with shipping is all I ask. Please let me know and I can get these to you right away.
Cheers! -Geoff aka Ragtopman

[SuperSlab]

Now this is classy: well done sir!

[cjperry81]

Wow man that would be amazing. You have no idea how much I appreciate this. I can use 2 for sure. I will shoot you a PM to get details together. I have no extra magnets in mine but I ran into some guys today running extra magnets and they were the fastest cars I’ve ever seen. I have definitely felt like something was dragging and I really think it was the guide binding.

[4424ever]

Yet another example why HRW is the place to be
Kudos all around

[Fathead59]

4424 , I agree with 100% , HRW forum is the place to be . Very friendly people willing to share their knowledge about slot cars , and willing to help other slot car guys out .

[Ragtopman]

Just sent a PM...

[Broman62]

...OUTSTANDING RTM!!!!

[jaws]

If your Carrera cars are dragging in the corners on a Scalextric track, you can put in the "red" guide. This guide is included in with the extra accessories that come with some cars. It is shorter and more narrow than the standard black guide used on the newer cars, 2007 and up. I have also bought the red blade guides alone, part number #85309.

Jim W

[cjperry81]

I remember swapping out a blade at some point but it may not have been that car. I will have to look. Hopefully that's the only issue

[32lbking]

Yeah, what Jim said. PRETTY sure that car is new enough to have the red guide. It should be in the bag with extra braid in the back of the case.

[cjperry81]

Yeah I have the red blade on mine. I must have swapped it already. I thought I had.

[dw5555]

As a side note if you get a motor without a pinion, the pinion on the old motors just pull off. When you put the pinion on the new motor dry the motor shaft well and put a drop of super glue on the shaft where the motor goes. It should hold it.
Dave

[Kevan]

Motor bushes don't even need a drop of oil, more like a smear. I sigh in dismay when I pick up some peoples cars, if you can see the oil then you've used far too much.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

You didn't mention whether the motor had been unusually hot. It matters a lot. Also, many times the motors that have failed because they were over-oiled can be saved with an isopropyl alcohol bath. Just hold it under, grab the shaft and turn it back and forth. If it breaks loose easily, the motor may been seized up by sludge left from burned up oil. Also, after dunking in alcohol, you must then dunk in water to get the alcohol out. Thoroughly dry the motor inside and out (a computer duster will help a lot with that). There are other operations with the alcohol after you see if this operation brings it back to life a bit.

I mention all this because you will want to know how to clean motors in the future. Go ahead and replace the motors of course. This is just an interesting thing to do to learn about the motors.

Also, consider whether the power source is functioning properly. Dirty current will ruin motors.

[cjperry81]

I greatly appreciate it. Its good info to know. I will say that I never noticed it being hot before, but I honestly don't drive it a ton. I did one lap yesterday at the hobby shop at a relatively low speed because I just put new slicks on it and wanted to ease into it and in the final stretch it slowed way down on its own and I let off and then you could smell it. Thats all she wrote. My son's scalextric camaro was cutting in and out on a lap so I had him stop and you could smell that one from a mile away and it was super hot. It never worked after it cooled down. Now he's 8 so his is probably an abuse issue.