New Motor and New Problems: DisArrma-ed

Power has always fascinated people we can think from Machiavelli’s politics to more recent Jeremy Clarkson. Jeremy Clarkson once asserted that driving a more powerful car stimulated testosterone. That is Clarkson’s claim, and it was some comparison about driving a Toyota Camry vs a Porsche. Is it true? I have no idea. However, if it allows me to justify upgrades or getting a fun car, then I am all about it.

I do not know about health benefits, but I do understand the fun factor. It is fun to drive something that has more power. So, I gave in to Clarkson's antics and put a new motor in the Arrma Fury, only to find the next weak link in the system: the spur gear is bad. So, back to A Main Hobbies, Horizon Hobbies, and Tower Hobbies. I really wanted a steel spur gear, so if I do decide to really give the truck the beans, then I know the drivetrain can handle it. AMain was out of stock, but eBay to the rescue. The new gear should be here soon. I will let you know how the sale went and where I got it. Nope, I do not get commission on that sale. That is just my big heart shining through like E.T.. I think RC cars are a pretty cool hobby, and it would be great to see this hobby popular once again.

So, what about the new motor? What about other issues?

So, what Happened?

I got the shiny motor out and was all excited like a kid on Christmas morning. Ah, the motor was so shiny. It was great and so satisfying to look at it. Did I mention it was shiny? I snapped the heatsink on the motor, and then realized something about the motor and the mounting point. The heatsink was a different kind of shiny? No, that’s not it….

I had a flashback to college when my friend asked me, “How can you get an elephant in the Safeway bag?” Well, this only happens when you take the “f” out of the way in “Safeway.” Think about the previous sentence, and you will realize, “There is no F in way.” Well, that is how I felt when I tried to insert the motor into the chassis with the heat sync. I did buy 3 cheap heat syncs off Amazon, so my plan now is to cut one so that it will lie over the motor after a dab of thermal grease. The chassis should hold it in place. I love the should…. What has ever gone wrong when people say things like, “Well, it should work?” I have learned that if one does not put a theory to the test, then the theory is never confirmed. So hold my beer and let’s see what happens at a future date. If you don’t hear from me for a while, then I guess you may as well finish my beer because I’m probably not coming back for it. I will have to postpone the test for another day.

You can see in the image that there is not much of a gap between the motor and the chassis. I tried all sorts of ways to snap the heatsink onto the motor and just kept saying, “SafeWay.”

I did get the motor mounted, and it was beautiful…so shiiiiiiiny…. I did the paper test with the spur gear and the pinion gear. The mesh looked right, but the spur gear is starting to get well-rounded. This is not in a good way, where you are proud of someone for reading more material and getting out of their bubble, but well-rounded in the sense that the teeth are not as pointy as they should be. So, the next project is the spur gear.

I plugged in the speed control to the battery and gave it some beans. I discovered that the gears made more screams than watching Nightmare on Elm Street!. Dude, that was really a poor choice on my part to watch that movie as a kid. Freaky man! I think that was one of the only horror movies I saw, and the last one I saw. That was enough for me. Anyway, after the PTSD settled down from hearing the loud screams coming from a vehicle that should be silent, I tried some grease. It got quiet, but then it got loud again. Clearly, I found the problem even when I was in fetal position holding my blankey. The problem is in the gear mesh. Clearly, the spur gear is bad, and when I get the new one, then I can really test the new motor. I plan to test different cooling options to see what really makes a difference.

This is the left side of the truck, where you see how the gears mesh. The spur gear has started to get rounded and is very loud.

So, What Didcha Do?

I gave it more beans of course! Actually, I installed the fan and made sure that it worked. I tried to plug the fan into the receiver, but the plug does not fit. I am guessing that the fan has to run off the speed control to get the maximum power. I got that working. It is pretty easy, and it blows more hot air than a con man selling swamp land! It was pretty amazing to run the car a bit, yes I woke up the neighbors….in the next zip code…. but the speed was awesome.

Getting the motor mounted is not as much of a challenge as you would think. Basically, you put the motor in the chassis, you get the gears where you want them, shine a flashlight through the chassis mounting holes, put your screw in the hole, and loosely attach that screw to the motor. Now it is easy to get the other hole to line up with the motor mount as you watch the gears mesh. The hardest part was getting the speed demon back inside the motor ….. okay… so it was just a cool light trick.

The fan is super easy. You simply remove the grill over the motor. You plug the fan into the speed control power, turn the labe side down towards the motor (you can feel the air), make sure you have the power cable plugged into the seed control, plug in a battery, and you should feel the air blowing around the motor.

Remove the factory grill, put the label side down on the fan, line up the two pegs on the fan, put the new grill on top, and reattach with the new screws. It is super easy!

On the Hobbywing 1080 it is very easy to attach the fan. If you are going to use a fan with your FURY make sure the speed control has a power port. The Hobbywing 1060 DOES NOT!

There is a spot that says “Fan” on the speed control, but that will only work with a 2-wire plug. I did some digging, and to do the Arrma fan, you have to attach it behind the LiPO/NiMH jumper.

I have the fan mounted, and then I went to the hobby stores online to see if I could find a new spur gear. I like RC because I found a steel one on eBay for $9.99 with shipping. The gear should be arriving any day now. I could have bought a new factory gear, but my goal is to see if this truck will hit 40MPH. I want this truck to be durable and eventually I will add a brushless motor. I want a drive grain that can handle it.

I also want to know how much of a difference it makes to keep the motor cool. I doubt it is going to give me much more speed, but it should at least keep the speed runs consistent. Next week, I plan to report on modifying a heatsink and running the fanned motor with the new gears.

I got the fan installed, and I ran the truck in front of my house to test it out. I like doing short runs initially on new motors until I run them half throttle, and then do little full throttle bursts. Once it seems that the motor is acting consistently, then I let it roll. Honestly, it did not seem that much faster. However, I am not sure how much the gears are slipping. It got really loud by the end of the run. I did manage to get a 5200mAh 2S LiPO to cut off. So, I think I ran it for maybe 25 minutes.

Whatcha Learn?

Nuttin’…. Just kidding. I learned that things break down. It is a reminder that in this world, things do not last forever. However, it is easy to discard things and throw them away. I prefer to redeem and take back. I don’t want to throw this truck away, but I want it to run like it should and give it purpose. So, I am going to put in a new spur gear and see if this budget brawler can eventually brawl with the big guys. I don’t know how much less it will cost by the time it is able to hang with, say, an SC10, but you can’t blame a guy for trying. Yes, things break down, but it allows learning something new by fixing what is broken.

The other thing I learned is the importance of resiliency. I know that these things are just toys for boys…. I mean big boys…. (at least that is what I tell myself), but they do teach us to persevere. It is one of my frustrations with kids playing video games. There is the reboot and the reset, and no cost for poor decisions. There is a value in learning that poor decisions lead to poor rewards. The reminder that when you play stupid games you win stupid prizes? When you have to problem solve you learn: maybe I should make better decisions? Or maybe I should take my time and see if there is a way to make some lemonade right now rather than sitting here stewing about what happened?

In terms of a real-life application, we can see how this applies to people. It is easy to discard someone who does not take us where we think we should go, but when we persevere, we learn to appreciate gifts in others and find that we can be stretched in a good way, provided we are in a healthy situation where everyone truly wants what is best. These are the people you want to be part of them and you want to use your skills to help them as well.

There are the manipulators who will say they want the best, but they might be really broken people who will exploit you. You will notice that these are the ones who spread rumors, they make themselves the hero and victim in every story, and they only act like they receive your input. This is like the RC car where you keep fixing, fixing, fixing, and it never stays together. This might be the one where you have to sever the relationship. So, hobbies teach us to pay attention to our surroundings. They teach us the value of discernment to see what is worth an investment, and when it is time to walk away. Unfortunately, sometimes we have to walk away so bad apples don’t get the credibility of the good apples.

So, we might discredit hobbies, but the reality is that when we get outside our normal surroundings, we get stretched in a good way.

Conclusion

Yes, these are just RC cars, but the joy of doing a hobby is extending life lessons to other places in life. This truck will hit 40 MPH on a brushed motor. I don’t know how I will do it, but in the process, it will be robust enough to handle a brushless system down the road. At this point, the Firma motor seems like a solid upgrade if you are on a budget or if you are just cheap like me. Personally, I would love to be Jay Leno with a hangar of cars, but not all of us have that opportunity. Congrats to Jay for his success, and I am thankful that I can dink around with RC cars with my kids. Also, thanks to the people who produce Jay Leno’s Garage. It is cool to see him driving his cars and not just putting them away in storage. In the meantime, I am just going to tinker with my RC cars. Crash them, and then repair them. It is nice to pay 20 bucks rather than several thousand.

Remember, as Americans, we are quick to discard, but it is satisfying to bring something back from the dead. There is a reward in redeeming what we might think is lost. Yes, it takes discernment, but as we continue to practice, we sharpen our judgment.

Thank you for reading this post! Until we meet again, may the Lord’s blessing and peace be upon you.