3573 replies to this topic

[don.siegel]

Nice looking motors guys! Kind of giving me an inferiority complex with my Russkit 23s...

Jairus, just for info, Certus did make complete motors, but distribution seems to have been very much limited to the Midwest. They were one of the hot powerplants at the end of my first slot racing career in Chicago...

Don

[havlicek]

Nice looking motors guys! Kind of giving me an inferiority complex with my Russkit 23s...

Why Don? They're both just two different shades of "lovely"

-john

[Bill from NH]

I have one bubble gum arm from BITD(thanks Tex) & it's engraved 27/28. I guess some weren't.

[don.siegel]

It was just a joke John, and as a matter of fact I prefer the Russkit 23, but it is very impressive to see how they evolved from the rather simple toylike motors to a more businesslike model, really designed for slot cars.

Don

[havlicek]

I have an awfully big soft spot for the "23" myself Don. As much as I bitch and moan about them, I also feel more "connected" to the Mabuchis in general than later motors. It's just that the Muras are so capable, they need a LOT less massaging.

-john

[havlicek]

...speaking of Muras. Here's a nice old 2-hole Mura done up for Peter Horvath. The can/end bell needed a pretty good dose of TLC, but it all came back together nicely and the bushings were even fine. I gave him the red/red treatment that I thought came out cool looking (and I guess Peter thought the same because he mentioned it). I wound him up a #28 and timed it (for his request) to run backwards (CW as viewed from the endbell).



-john

[Jairus]

so pretty, so very pretty....


So, if it runs backwards, why did you not flip the can and re-bend the buss bars?

[havlicek]

Hi Jairus,

I figure he can bend the bussbars however works for his chasis when he sees what needs to be done....but I just thought of something that would be safe and easy !

-john

[Peter Horvath]

Looks great, John. I can't wait to drop it in a chassis and make it go. The red/red combo looks fast...

[havlicek]

Hi Peter,

I finished off your second motor...both run "backwards" now (CW timing viewed from the end bell). I rebent the buss bars on the Mura to accomodate the new running direction...I was going to try something else, but it would have been a PITA and would have meant different hardware, better to keep the old Mura "all Mura" The Parma got a #29 wind and a new Mura com after I removed the stack insulators. There's plenty of room in those D-motor endbells, so I figured why not. (Of course, the Parma is also CW timed, and I shimmed the magnets so it should be a torquey motor, while the Mura has the decided advantage in revs. I also modified the Parma end bell hardware by slotting the hoods and adding a wider spring sleeve. Now it can run regular springs instead of those weird D-motor springs they supply with those things



-John

[havlicek]

I don't get many of the Mura "A" motors over here. Beats me whether they're particularly scarce or something, but when I do get one I tend to want to do a bit "more" on them. This one is for Ray Price, and it's a sweetheart. Many oif the ones I get here have replaced the magnets, and this had has the Mura/Dynamic magnets with the can shim and they were banging-strong. I built an arm blank using Mabuchi lams, a vintage Mura com and a drill blank shaft and then wound it with #28 wire. It comes in a .232 ohms and sings an awfully nice song when motivated by DC I stuck a "Czech" thing on there because...well...just because it's a cool motor.



-john

[MantaRay]

John, All I can say is WoW..............You are a excellent craftsman

[havlicek]

Thanks Ray...and it runs as good as it looks Very cool old motor you got there! Now I have to get to that FT26D of yours as things are starting to pile up behind you on the bench

-john

[Jairus]

The blue works with the Czech thing for some reason.
For me anyway... nice work sir.

[MantaRay]

I agree

[havlicek]

Thanks Jairus

-john

[havlicek]

Another arm for Ray Price. This time for a 26D and Ray asked for a fast arm, but not too crazy (good thinking with any Mabuchi!). Anyway, this is a wind I've done for several of the Proxy cars within a turn or two either way , and it's proven to be a definite step up from stock even though the 26Ds were among the best of the stock Mabuchis. It's also been a reliable wind that can live with the standard endbell and hardware and a little extra beefing-up.



This one was done using the stack off a standard blue-wire Mabuchi arm, with a Mura com added for extra goodness (brazed/hard-soldered com connections of course). The 26D is always an "interesting" arm to wind as there's gobs of space inside the stacks, but not much real estate on the com and tail ends at all. I always wonder when I see old 26D rewinds where the wire is packed on there almost flush to the face of the poles and absolutely no tail-spacer showing and the com sitting ON the coils This particular wind works out to exactly .430Ω per pole, and there's still room on there without cramming. Anyway, you can take off the stack insulators if you want to go through the trouble of insulating the stack, and that would drop the resistance per pole with the same wind, but give you more room top and bottom.

Anyway, this is a sweet wind for a 26D and this one balanced out really nicely. No doubt it will be a great runner.

-john

[MantaRay]

looking good John............Thank you

[havlicek]

You're most welcome Ray...and here's your 26D complete:


Hoods are soldered and you got a spankin' NOS Champion endbell that I installed the bearing in. I wound you a set of .015" springs because they work better than new springs on these motors...you can make the "short leg" long enough to ride in both sides of the brush tube slots for positive alignment of the spring and brush. Of course, I sleeved the spring posts and gave it a spin for about 5 minutes. It howls like a stuck dog, draws only about an amp, runs sooooooooper smooth and doesn't get warm at all. I'd say that it's near-perfect for a 26D that's going to be run fairly hard. You can maker them faster, but they'll flame out before too long. I hope you have an awfully nice car to put this thing in!

-john

[havlicek]

...next up is a Mabuchi 13UO project, and these things are among the more difficult for me. I at least have a basic plan of attack from past encounters with the littlest Mabuchis. Anyway, I'm going in and if you don't hear from me in a few days...dial 911.

-john

[havlicek]

I finished up the 13UO...or...it almost finished me Anyway, I went a slightly different direction this time and this is the most success I've had with one of these so far:



Starting with the can, I removed the stock caged bushing and replaced it with a 5mm ball bearing. I figured for what I had planned for the little guy, it would be a good addition. Then I whittled down a pair of modern ceramic magnets, and wedged them into the can while the epoxy holding them in cured. They measure up solidly in "Arco" territory after I removed the wedges...so far, so good! After drilling the can for retaining screws, I could turn my attention to the endbell and this time, I adapted some FT16D hardware to the 13UO end bell. That turned out to be more difficult than I had thought it would be, having to pretty much whittle/carve/solder/cajole all the hardware and the end bell itself. I even had to shorten the little FT16D brush tubes a bit as I kept coming up against roadblocks every time I thought I was making progress. I finally did get it all together and it would have been soooooo much easier to just slap a modern endbell on there, but there would have gone all the "vintage" mojo

Finally, I could assemble an arm to fit the setup and I built one using Mura .007" lams that I added some Mabuchi stack insulators to. I pressed the lams onto a new drill blank shaft and installed a modern D-motor com as it was the only one I had that would fit...even after radiusing out the inside of the endbell. When I got that all done, I did a #29 wind for the little guy which balanced up really nicely. On this slightly short stack arm, the wind comes in at .340 ohms.

This was one of those motors where (even though the arm metered perfectly, the magnets are strong and aligned well in the setup with a nice tight airgap, and the brush hardware seemed to be fine)...I had no idea what was going to happen when I fired it up. Well dagnabbit...this motor just stormed to life when I hit it with 6V and it quickly settled down to about 1 amp current draw. I figured it would run well...but not THAT well, but it just howls and doesn't get at all warm. This should make one heck of an interesting F1 car powerplant!

[Jairus]

Beautiful John, just beautiful!

[havlicek]

Thanks Jairus Going with the FT16D hardware modified to fit the 13 UO end-bell seems like the best way to go (other than adapting some later end-bell and/or hardware) for these, and it at least retains the period nature of the motor. Sure the somewhat later Mura arm-blank wasn't likely to have been used with the "13", so that's another visual clue that the motor isn't 100% period correct, but it doesn't seem like such a "sacrilegious" change. Anyway, the motor just runs like crazy, and I'll use this plan for any I do in the future for sure...maybe refine it somehow.

-john

[havlicek]

Next up is a project based on a Mura "Green Can" C-motor...to be mounted inline. Looking through my "stuff", I have a 2-hole Mura that's C-can-sized, but without the can notches for axle clearance. I'm guessing that was a slightly later added detail as motor angles got shallower and shallower??? These things came in quite a variety of sizes and configurations!

-john

[Jairus]

Nope, that is the earliest "Green" can there was John and quite a rare piece actually.