Brushless thoughts?

[NomadRacer]

I opted to file the entire length of the upper top slot, it was quicker that way. Please note, this is my own experience. You may find, with other motors, that the mod is not needed. I have one motor, a Novak Ballistic 17.5 (hard to find now) that lines up perfectly in the motor plate slot.

[XLR8]

This is so very disappointing. We wouldn't need to modify our motor plates if the motor manufacturers would adhere to the established design norms. I seem to recall that the screw holes are meant to be on a 25mm bolt circle. Reedy, of all manufacturers, should know better.

[Basher67]

Ok, I'll admit, I was ready to cal b.s. on this one since I have had many different brushless setups in my goldpan test car. I have never attempted to put a reedy in it. So I grabbed up a few brushless motors and 4 vintage gold ano motor plates and did some testing. Nomad Racer is correct. All other motors, ebay el cheapo, gool rc, novak ballistic, traxxas velineon----all fit right up, but the reedy mach 3 has a slightly bigger bolt hole pattern. I love Reedy motors and use them exclusively in my B6 turf racer. All I can say to stick up for them, is maybe they were not thinking about the vintage market when designing these motors. All newer cars have 2 horizontal slots so the hole pattern is not as critical.

[sbednara]

Thanks for posting that pic. I too would have thought a motor from reedy would have just fit right in.

[Basher67]

You asked earlier about 45 amp vs 60 amp and I forgot to reply. I would go with the 60amp. If you're just going to run 2s with a mild motor in a buggy, the 45 amp will be fine. I always go with a higher esc amp rating because I'm always playing with different motors and batteries in different, vehicles. A few more dollars for the 60 amp will give you more options down the road without having to buy another esc. I see 60 amp esc's powering 7.5t race motors in stadium trucks on high traction turf quite often with no overheating.

[sbednara]

good point basher. might not need it now but just might at some point in the future and for the couple extra bucks now its prob worth it.

another question, I see a lot of esc's with fans. this is new to me. the cheap esc i bought for my raider pro doesnt have one but i do run a mild motor too. its also rated at 45a. HOWEVER the brushless setup id like to get, at 60a, is a fan for the esc essential? seems most esc/motor combos come with a fan on the esc anyway. so prob will end up with one but is that a must have?

[XLR8]

Excessive heat damages electronic components so it's always best to take steps to pull as much heat as possible away from your ESC's and motors. I have a couple buggies where space is limited so I had to remove the fan that was supplied with the ESC. For these, I pay close attention to gearing and monitor the ESC during the initial runs to confirm that they weren't overheated. "Overheated", in this instance, is subjective; I think that if it's too hot to touch, it's overheated. I'm also reconciled to the fact that heat will reduce the life of the ESC so it will live longer if I'd left the fan in place.

[Basher67]

It really depends on the setup. On my justock hobbywing 60 amp esc, I took off the fan and added a big fan near the motor. The esc runs cool even doing hot laps in 90 degree weather powering my 17.5 reedy s-plus. If youre running a faster motor on 3s on a hot day, the fan might make the difference. The fans definitely work, it's just a matter of needing one. I wouldn't let the fan or no fan thing sway your choice in esc's. If the esc you've picked out doesn't have one, they're only a couple bucks to add one down the road. Even the cheapest brushless esc's come with built in lipo and thermal protection, so at most, it should just shut down if it ever overheated.

[Basher67]

Are you setting up this car for a vintage race class or just bashing around? While I'm at it, how about some pics of it? We love pics around here.

[sbednara]

oh im just having fun with this. it's a backyard basher. although i recently found a carpet offroad style track about 30 min from the house. its tempting but they dont have a vintage class. said they don't have enough interest in vintage yet. their biggest class right now is stock 2wd buggies so it would be fun to race with this. although im afraid i still wouldnt stand much of a chance. We went on an open track night, rented a sc truck and played around. that was fun. but last weekend they had their biggest event of the year and we went for bit to watch. i was really impressed with the buggies.

anyway heres my restore thread. as much as i want it done now it'll be a slow process for me. dont really have a plan of what i want to do. car has been sitting for some time. starting with general maintenance, rebuilding shocks, id like to tear down the transmission and rebuild with bearings. id also like to swap the bushings for bearings. maybe update the steering mechanism. and of course i need more power so i will be installing a brushless esc/motor. I'm sure theres more but thats all i can think at the moment.

https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=43182

[Basher67]

Nice. I live for 2wd stock buggy class these days. I've been running at an indoor offroad turf track near me. If your thinking about running in stock buggy, buy a used b6. Nothing I've seen is comparable right now with the b6/6.1 platform for ease of tuning and overall performance, durability, and cost of parts. I have an old ce that I've set up for racing on the turf track. It's fun and draws alot of attention, but it's not even in the same universe as the new mid motor purpose built buggies.

[Basher67]

Bearings should be the first upgrade. I would a least tear down the trans, clean and inspect it, and replace all bushings with bearings. This is cheap to do and should be considered mandatory before adding performance upgrades, especially brushless power. Running that kind of power through a near 30 year old trans with the original bushings is a recipe for disaster that will cost you alot more money in the end than just doing it right from the beginning. The steering can be tightened up with a zip-tie around the servo saver.

[sbednara]

That’s what I’ve been thinking. Get the car in good shape before I start adding any performance parts. I need to make sure it’s ready to handle it. Shocks, bearing swap and transmission rebuild will happen before I run this again. Then I’ll look to replacing the bell crank, adding a brushless esc/motor.

Here’s an article I read that made me think about replacing the arms as well as maybe a cvd conversion. Any thoughts on these two things?

http://www.competitionx.com/hop-up-corner/hop-up-corner-team-associated-rc10-classic/

[Basher67]

RPM arms are cool but they will not really be a performance upgrade. If you do end up breaking an arm, it is a good option, but money is best spent other places first. CVD's are not a cheap upgrade, and while they are a good upgrade, they are not necessary. Dogbones work well when set up correctly. This is where you need to spend some time shimming the rear axles to get the proper spacing and make sure you have the springs inside the axle that keep a little tension on the dogbone. Finally, you want your suspension setup where it doesn't articulate too far up or down so as not to bind the dogbone while the car is jumping. When you set the ride height of your buggy, you want the dogbone as flat as possible. This will give you maximum performance with the least amount of strain on the car. If you follow these steps, dogbones work just fine and did so for years. My runner/basher buggy has seen all kinds of overpowered brushless setups bolted in its chassis and I'm still running the original dogbones.

[jwscab]

totally agree. With the exception of the maybe the steering bellcranks, everything you listed in a nice to have, and not really necessary(except bearings). The bellcranks themselves aren't really necessary, I just like how the later ones tighten up the response.