motor maintenance

[Bericson1989]

So a few months I purchased a couple of Copal 60:1(http://www.robotmarketplace.com/products/0-COPAL60.html) motors for a beetleweight robot.  They started to make grinding sounds and lose most of their torque.  They seem to spin fine off the ground, but when set down they kinda just sit and click. 

I did some research, and apparently, these motors aren't really meant to be used with anything over a pound, which I suppose kind of explains why I am getting the issues.  But what I'm wondering is if there is anything I can do to fix the issue and make them reusable.  Could it be solved with a cleaning or something, or should I say my good byes and bury them?

[Coboxite]

If you've run the motor in a 3lb bot, most likely you've ground the gear teeth straight off. This is not repairable without a fresh set of gears. The Copal motors have plastic gears and should not be run in a bot heavier than one pound. Most builders have stopped using them because they are too fragile nowadays.


Probably would be a better idea to just get a pair of hardened Kitbots motors, the gears are metal and the motor has more power. The drive shaft is 4mm, so you'll have to enlarge the bore of your current hubs or get a fresh pair.

[Bericson1989]

Thank you. Alot of that I had to figure out on my own, and have definitely swapped out the copal for the motors you talked about, but hardened them myslef.  /flex  but I was mainly wondering how I could get them working for an antbot.  I didn't realize the gears were being ground down and it sounds like if I could find the correct size metal gears it might be worth installing those?

[Coboxite]

At this point, it would just make more sense to toss them and get a fresh pair of motors, like the Fingertech Sliver Sparks. The gears have a higher pitch(ie; bigger teeth) and are all metal.

[Jeff Gier]

It's gonna be pretty hard to tell you what is broken based on a couple sentences.  What I would suggest is that you slowly disassemble the gearbox (while taking lots of pictures) to find the problem. 
Then, you would need to find out how to fix the problem.  At this point, we may be able to help you or it may not be something that can be fixed.  Then you would need to source a replacement part and install it.  After all that, it will likely break again.

I wouldn't suggest using copals in a competition bot, but if you want to learn then try and fix them.

[Bericson1989]

It feels like general consensus is that the copals are useless.  But perhaps something I can learn from.  Luckily I have some sparks arriving today.  Thank you both for your input.