Dismantling Drill Motors.

Having finally completed our robot and taken it for a test drive it would seem we have lost about 75% of our power, despite minimal modifications since an earlier test run.
To add insult to injury one of the wire tabs on the motors has snapped clean off and not left enough metal on the motor to effectively solder too.

So in light of this I have decided it would probably be a good idea to take apart the motors, solder the cables inside the casing to stop further breaks, and give them a good clean to see if that will help us regain some power. It's possible that (despite having taped the air vents) that some crap has fallen inside the motor, so assuming this has caused the drop in power I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone while they're apart.

Any one got any advise, pointers, and resources they can direct me to on how to dismantle drill motors?

And of course whether the drop in power may be due to something else.......

Thanks,

I doubt your power drop is dew to material getting into the motor. I have dropped drill motors into steel swarf and they still ran fine. I would look at the charge your batteries, if the settings on your transmitter had changed and whether there was anything fouling the wheels.

I can understand wanting to try and save the motor etc to save cash but I usually just chuck the motor is the tabs get screwed so I'm afraid i can give you any direct tips. From generally taking motors apart, I can say that you should be careful that you don't damage the motor brushes as they are made from carbon graphite and are very brittle. Make sure you save any washers etc and place them back where they should go.

There is definitely something odd going on. The charge in the Batteries is good, I cycled them through a discharge and trickle charge a couple of times before Fast charging and putting them back into the robot. One of the main modifications we made was to make sure the wheel ran as freely and smoothly as possible and the Tx doesn't have any functions to modify anything.

We could just buy a new motor, but given how easily the tab broke of this one I could see it happening again unless I did something about it. Thanks for warning me of the Carbon Brushes though.

what drills are they, i have a few motors you might be able to have

2 x 12v drill motors, from the Argos value range.

If you do that would be great!

i will have a look, i think i have one

http://www.wa4dsy.net/robot/drillmaster/index.html

Thats the guide I used if you're still planning to dismantle those drills

Sorry I read your post wrong, thats a link to dismantling the whole drill not the motor.

Cheers Harry!

No worries Tony, nice tutorial though.