Replacing Motor Gear
 

http://www.redwolfairsoft.com/redwol...l?prodID=10870
http://www.redwolfairsoft.com/redwol...l?prodID=10873

For those who have experience removing and replacing the motor gear what tools and technique do you use?

I bought a gear puller for R/C cars from my local hobby shop. It cost me $15 and I've used it about 10 times now or so.

To re-install the gear, I made a little jig with a pin protruding from it and I rest the motor shaft on it while I tap the gear on with a hammer. That way, you won't break the end bells of the motor as significant force is required to install the new gear.

But I'm all for using the correct tools, but just never got around to ordering them.

thanks McGuyver, if you are a really big Mcguyver fan
http://www.pistolwimp.com/media/56794/
http://www.pistolwimp.com/media/56793/
http://www.pistolwimp.com/media/56792/

Here is what I did
 

ASC Link
http://www.airsoftcanada.com/showthr...=pinion+puller

Those are the tools I use, but I find the setting tool just a bit too short to do long shank motors. You have to use the plates to carefully press manually for a bit to set the gear in place, then thread in the screws, a turn or so on each side, until the gear bottoms out. Like Mac, I haven't got around to getting the porper tools as in longer screws.

I put a vise grip around my old gear and used a small punch to punch out the shaft thru the gear.

To install the new gear all I did was lightly tapped it with a hammer.

For those who might say I was stupid to do this, save your breath because I had no access to a gear puller or a gun doctor at the time.

And it is still running great to this day.

It was on my TM MP5 SD5.

I did the same , only I heated the gear to make it easer. When it came time to put it back togeter I put the motor in the freezer for 30 minutes and heated the gear lightly, press fit! Works for me!

HAHAHAHHAHA

sorry... just that the "tool" from WGC.....almost 40$ US plus shipping.

Here is the best thing.... cost half the price... works like a charm.

http://www.gwsus.com/english/product/other/gp.htm

You can go to any hobbyshop and ask them for the standard version.

to put it back, the hammer trick is fine. the pinion won't go in wrong anyways. Just make sure you start it straight.... and that the other end of the motor shaft sits on something hard.

Yeah, one of our local player bought one thinking that. It broke in half without budging the gear. It's no where near strong enough to pull an AEG gear off the shaft.

ah well...

not tried yet since I have not changed my motor.

I do know that it took out a steel pinion hot press fitted on the shaft when cold. There is a way to use it to prevent damage to the tool.... but still I agree that brass is not the best material to use for that kind of tool.

Or you could just go to a superior Classic Army replacement motor where the pinion gear is secured via a set screw.

Seriously, CA motors are in fact better than TM. The TM motors are built to be completely non-user servicable with those tabs bent in to keep the end bell in place. On the CA you can remove it with two screws. The CA motor also has bearings in it - FOUR on the long model - versus none for the TM. It's still not as good as a Systema or other high performance motor, but if you're interested in motor maintenance the CA is an excellent piece of equipment.

I can post some figures if you want about efficiency increases after lathing the commutator and soldering the brush braids.

they are compatible with TM gears?

Fully. Just make sure you get the correct length for your gun and they should be a drop-in replacement.

Efficiency increases? COOL, can you show us how? Do you have pictures showing how to do it?

unless you have a high quality com lathe, it is useless for you to know.

A commutator would need to be cut every 2 battery packs to stay efficient, and the brushes changed at the same time.

Then break-in the new brushes....will be good for an other 2 packs.
It is good for R/C cars racing, but for airsoft.....

Only thing is that bearings are always good, so you better go with the CA motor then....wich makes me think about it...

I might end-up having a TM motor to wind....just to make a kick ass powerfull motor.

*edit* soldering the brushes will defenitly help though. I will do it tomorrow while I am building my MOSFET switch bridge.... might get about 5 RPS just with that.

Kos-Mos is correct about the comm lathe. A buddy of mine who is also into R/C cars bought one recently and we did a bit of fooling around with it. I'll just copy and paste his post from the MAA forums:

I have been playing around with my ICS turbo 2000 motor and Andrews CA motor. Have a look.

all pics are available biggie size at: http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y285/Solvarex/
Thanks to Andrew for hosting the pics

Reasons:
1: the ics motor is considered crappy, it has a reputation of getting weak over time.
2: i purchased an eg700 for more torque for my icsmp5a4
3: the pinion gear on the turbo 2000 was stripped/chipped (my fault)

ok I have some tools you probably dont, but I can do this for you at your own risk. No guarantees that the motor will work after. AEG motors I have seen so far are low end compared to my racing motors.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...h_Dsc00187.jpg


The motor was first stripped of its pinion gear. Most hobby motors have a flat spot on the armature shaft so a gear can be removed easily by loosening a set screw on the pinion. The Ics and the Tm I have do not have this but the CA does. Options are to use a gear puller (available in WPG) or destroy the gear by cutting or sanding it off. DO NOT try to simply pry it off as you will damage your motor .

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...h_Dsc00183.jpg


The armature is a solid stack design. this will give good torque but will lower rpm somewhat. The ICS armature has been balanced using epoxy. the job was sloppy but works ok. ( I prefer epoxy balancing over drilling holes in the armature). The CA motor had no balancing at all. The commutator (the area that looks worn) , is kinda blackened but is nice and thick, that is good for cutting. the motor wires that go around the armature stacks is simply crimped to the commutator. This is poor but is induustry standard on a cheap motor.

the ICS endbell (blue and gold) is pretty standard stuff. It is actually better than a stock TM . The motor brush hood is larger and thicker so heat transfer out of the motor will be improved. cooling holes are ok and the bushing is of good size. The CA has ball bearings!
The motor can is crappy. On the ICS no internal bracing is used to hold the magnets in place, the magnets are epoxied in place and dropping the motor can dislodge them easily. The CA has a spring as well as epoxy.

The brushes and springs are well, crap. these brushes are SUPER HARD, great for long life of the brushes (an aeg is sold under the assumption nobody will ever do maintainance to the motor), but bad for the commutator. The springs are simply too light because of the hard brushes. I will try to source some better brushes ( I made better brushes for the motor in my p90 but it is messy and imprecise for my liking.)

in the pic below you can see my motor lathe. designed for racing at the pro level, this thing is the tits for fixing up bad comms. ( you too can own one for $200 or so.) the motor is already on there ready to go. You can see the soldering has been done already but cutting has not.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...h_Dsc00185.jpg

a closer look of the ICS armature on the lathe.
you can see I have since soldered the bent over tabs (look for the shiny blob of solder between the stacks and the worn comm.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...h_Dsc00184.jpg


Finished product!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...h_Dsc00186.jpg

I would like to note I really didnt try to achieve a great finish as this was just to try to see if I could get any meaningful results.

RESULTS

My battery charger has a built in motor break in/test mode.

before
3.3 volts
motor consumed 3 amps
7.2 volts consumed 6.8 amps

after
3.3 volts 1.23 amps
7.7 volts 2.8 amps

That is a 2/3 improvement in efficiency.

that means in theorey you would get more shots per battery charge.

I also noted by sound an improvement in torque (faster spool up) and higher rpm ( pitch changed)

The motor also ran 7 degrees cooler at 7.2 volts after 5 minutes of running.

changing the brushes to a high silver type and soldering the leads to the endbell hoods would increase the motors output immensely. I am working on that.

*NOTE*
I have yet to take apart a TM motor.

The bad.
The CA motor has no balancing
The ICS and TM motors have bushings
TM has a poor endbell and brush hood design.

The good.
Ca has an easy to remove pinion gear.
Ca has ball bearings
Ca and ICS have a good brush hood and endbell design.
ICS has epoxy balancing.

Question for you guys......

I need a pinion puller because I've got 3, maybe 4 guns sitting here that need new motor pinions. I was looking at that $40 pinion puller that someone posted a link to, and I think it's a nice heavy duty looking unit but....

The thing is, does anyone know if that particular unit presses a new pinion on, as well as removing the old one? It looks like it might, but I don't see anything that states it for sure. I also can't seem to find that tool in any more than two places on the web for some reason.

If it properly removes and installs motor pinions, I think it would be the perfect tool for me.....that's why I'm extremely curious about it.

hey you know what I did today? Flat head screwdriver between the pinion and the piece of metal with the spring. and all I did was turn the screwdriver ever so slowly..and it came off. I tried the same thing with a penny. Worked well too