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I was looking over that image of all the Le Mans motors, in particular the rated voltage for each one, and was wondering what physically enables a motor like the 360 Gold for instance to use up to 8.4V but not the 480 Gold? Construction-wise, both have bearings at both ends and aluminum endbells. Other than the obvious differences (number of turns & winds), what enables a 360 Gold to use 8.4V? What could happen if I run a 480 Gold on 8.4V (other than it just going faster)? Is it too much voltage for the wires wrapped around the armature?

Sorry if the question seems foolish, I was just wondering.

Sorry I don't have an answer, but I can add another question.

I have a 480T (Green, not the one shown). It has left and right timing marks. Which way should I set it and what number? It is for a Ultima Pro XL.

I think it’s the brushes, they are harder for 8.4V, if my memory serves’ me correct, but I’m not sure!

About the right and left timing, It’s all abut what you like your motor to be … more torque or higher top speed. And for that you need a motor dyno, and here is a video for “Poor Man’s Dyno” http://vimeo.com/3160587

Speaking of the poor man's dyno, to adjust my timing for faster rpm, I just barely loosened the 2 screws attaching the endbell so that it could rotate, and connected the motor to 2 or 3 fresh D batteries in series. It causes the motor to rotate nice and slowly and you can easily hear the effects of small rotations of the endbell. This is also a good way to break in and seat your brushes.

Speaking of the brushes, I used aftermarket Trinity brushes when rebuilding my 480 Gold...so at least brush-wise, it should be good for 8.4V. I might prefer that to my mystery black can motor, which is stupidly fast and hard to control...but lots of fun!

Can anyone else say if any other part of the Le Mans motors not originally intended for 8.4V will crater or blow up with an extra 1.2V juiced through them?

The reason why they say the 360 series can handle 8.4v is beacuse it's a bigger motor. It is a 550 seize can. This produces more torque. They rev less too. So with 8.v the motor would do more RPM but not too much. A 540 will rev a lot more and most likly fail. ( Throw a wind off ) Remember back than the motors weren't as good as todays or should i say the last of brushed motors. The Epoxy if any will melt ( Holds windings tight) brushes would glaze up, Balancing of arm will shift due to the movement of the winds.

Cans weren't designed to extract heat and etc.

I don't know why Kyosho would spec the 480 Gold for only 7.2 V; I have numerous vintage Kyosho motors and they all have pretty much the same brushes, can design, etc. BITD, we didn't have that poster (or read the specs on the motor box ) and I ran my 480G on 8.4 V all the time with no ill effects.

Mad Racer wrote:The reason why they say the 360 series can handle 8.4v is beacuse it's a bigger motor. It is a 550 seize can. This produces more torque. They rev less too. So with 8.v the motor would do more RPM but not too much. A 540 will rev a lot more and most likly fail. ( Throw a wind off ) Remember back than the motors weren't as good as todays or should i say the last of brushed motors. The Epoxy if any will melt ( Holds windings tight) brushes would glaze up, Balancing of arm will shift due to the movement of the winds.

Cans weren't designed to extract heat and etc.

Weird...if you look at that image of all the Le Mans motor specs, several of them are smaller 540-sized cans that can handle even up to 9.6V, such as the 240S, 480S, 240SB and even the fastest one in the group, the 240WS. Heck, even the 600E, a 30T motor, can handle up to 9.6V. So why is the 480 Gold so relatively weak? Or is it even? I wonder if it's just a mistake or an oversight...

I just received a 240WS from eBay that I was going to use the endbell off, to rebuild my 360 Gold. But upon learning that the WS is the fastest-revving motor of the whole Le Mans collection, I decided to rebuild that one instead. But I still find it odd that the 480 Gold seems to be one of the few Le Mans motors *not* rated for more than 7.2V...

You are right. I really think that info is not right.

Really any motor should handel 8.4v more so the Alloy end bells ones.

Too me the strongest motor i think is the 240SB the spa motors were no better as i raced them all.

All of the Kyosho motors are good looking motors.