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I have a Reedy Silver Dot motor, its old, so to give it new life should i cut the armature on it and advance the timing 10 degrees? or just cut the armature? what do you do to those old motors to give them new life? By chance can someone tell me what turn they were.

Thanks Craig

You can send it to a motor builder, like Putnam, and he can not only cut the comm, but re-balance the arm and zap the magnets, as well as putting new brushes and springs in it, then dyno the motor for optimim performance.

Most old motors aren't worth the effort, though, as stock brushed motors of recent times were as fast as most of the old mod motors back in the day. A $30 stock motor or 19T machine wound off the shelf is probably a better bet than having the motor freshened up.

If you have a comm lathe, then cutting the comm is recommended, as well as new brushes, springs and a thorough cleaning of the bearings and internals. That's about the most you can do on your own.





IMO, vintage electronics are not worth using on bashers, beaters, racers, or runners. They are best suited for looking nice on shelfers, and not really worth spending money on maintaining them. JMHO, but you can buy cheap motors, batteries and electronics today that are infinitely better than the high end stuff of yesteryear.

Well I just wanted to get it freshend up, maybe run it down the street once then shelf it.

If you or a buddy have a comm lathe, then sure, go for it. If not, then it's probably not worth your time, effort or investment.

If you are going to shelf it soon, why put time and money into it. I mean, I would clean up the comm. as best I could, maybe tweek timing and see how it performs. Then go BL

yeah but i want a shelfed motor that works, maybe sometime in the future i might run them for the memories or something like that, instead of plugging it in and sayind damn it doesnt work

craigc8791 wrote:yeah but i want a shelfed motor that works, maybe sometime in the future i might run them for the memories or something like that, instead of plugging it in and sayind damn it doesnt work

Hey, I'm with you, Craig. I had more than a bit of fun rebuilding my old Kyosho Lemans motors (still 1 to go), they're just beautiful, and perform great, too.

BL is fine, but old brushed motors have mojo.