Please recommend - adding a motor

[deangaffney]

Gents, I'm new to restoration and need assistance in choose the correct size connectors and heat shrink for connecting an ordinary 540 can. I bought some crap bullet connectors with plasticy sheilding from Maplin but that looks 'whack'.

Cheers all

DK
London UK

[Coelacanth]

Ordinary 540 motor wires are pretty dinky...2.5mm maybe? Anyway, what I did was upgrade all connections between motor & ESC with gold-plated 3.5mm bullet connectors. They are very easy to solder, as the end where you solder the wire is a little cup; they're able to pass a lot more current than stock 540 wires & connectors (people often used the white Tamiya connectors back then), and it's easy to reverse the connections if you get your motor spinning in the wrong direction (this happens all the time when you install one of the new brushless motors). If you need to change motors, just pull apart the bullets. I also add a clear silicone sheath to cover the connections, which provides some water resistance. Those Tamiya connectors always got loose inside or even had the connector pins pull right out of the sockets, and if you got the polarity reversed, you had to resolder them. They also melt when coupled with the power of today's brushless motors, batteries & ESC's.

Here's the idea:

http://www.rc10talk.com/download/file.php?id=58833&mode=view

[terry.sc]

Personally I always solder direct to the motor, if you aren't regularly changing the motor having no connectors makes no difference. If you want to add some connectors get some from an r/c specialist, not Maplins. There is no specific connectors for motors, so take your pick from what's available. If you want an easy single plug go for a Deans or Merlin, if you want separate connectors on each lead so you can swap the wires around, use gold bullet connectors.

[deangaffney]

Thanks gents, appreciate you taking time to reply. I guess once I have chosen connectors then I can choose the right size heat shrink.

[Coelacanth]

I would go with either 3.5mm or 4mm connectors for a modern, high-powered brushless motor, but the larger 4mm connectors might look weird on a stock 540, hanging off those tiny little wires. Gold 3.5mm connectors will handle way more juice than what you're planning to throw at them.