TOPIC:

Afternoon.

Restoration/Slight Upgrades of my Tamiya Midnight Pumpkin are going really well. Fitted 4 x Ansmann 75mm Oil Damped Shocks and a 55mm as per the 5th/3rd shock mod which works brilliantly.

I'm looking to replace the standard 540 motor and maybe also the stock servo controlled power unit but I'm unsure which to choose.

I'm still trying to undertand the turn rates of the motors and would like one that would maybe just fit straight on, I've also noticed some of the ESC's have 3 cables rather than 2 could anyone explain?

Ideas for Engine and ESC combinations would be brilliant!

Motor "turns" = number of times copper wire is wrapped around each part of the armature (the spinny bit inside the motor). Higher number of turns means less speed but greater running time, lower turns means more speed, but much higher current draw... 27T is a normal 540 motor, 45T or 55T is much slower, for crawlers & "scalers"... 19T, 23T is faster but the battery won't last as long ...

Gearing (primarily controlled by the size of the pinion) is important for faster (lower turn motors) as they have a narrower band of revs where they produce peak torque - not hitting that power band means no speed benefit and overheating.

As there's only one pinion option for the Pumpkin, you'd be best to get a 23T motor (e.g. Tamiya' "Sport Tuned" motor - a 30% speed increase .... avoid Ansmann Clash motors at all costs).


Electronic Speed Controls (ESCs) are also rated on turns - you need an ESC with the same or lower "turns" than the motor, to avoid letting the magic smoke out, e.g. for a 23T motor, you need a 23T, 20T (or lower number) ESC... I'd suggest an Mtroniks 20T as it's waterproof & cheap.


3 motor wires means brushless, and that's a whole other can of worms

Quite possibly the best forum response I have ever had for anything.
Brilliant breakdown has helped me understand it fully!
What was the issue with the Ansmann Clash? Destroy Diffs/Gearboxes or set on fire?!?

I like the look of the suggested motor and ESC below for a brushed motor. Would 30% increase be enough for decent speeds offroading as well as powerslides/small jumps etc?

Am I right in thinking there is more control over the throttle with an ESC fitted meaning you can make minor adjustments to throttle rather than the standard 50% or 100%?

If you were to suggest a brushless system would there be anything that come in cheap or are they expensive due to greater reliability?

Thank you :-D

VIVA Midnight!!!
You don't need a very fast motor to have fun with your midnight pumpkins. I have a ABC M&Y motor on one of mine and stock mabushi 540 on the other and these one are better because have more time to play.
Warning Johnny! Some old esc have only 3 wires. I have a old Hitec wich has a common ground. And it is for brushed motor.

vardypeeps wrote:

Quite possibly the best forum response I have ever had for anything.
Brilliant breakdown has helped me understand it fully!
What was the issue with the Ansmann Clash? Destroy Diffs/Gearboxes or set on fire?!?

I like the look of the suggested motor and ESC below for a brushed motor. Would 30% increase be enough for decent speeds offroading as well as powerslides/small jumps etc?

Am I right in thinking there is more control over the throttle with an ESC fitted meaning you can make minor adjustments to throttle rather than the standard 50% or 100%?

If you were to suggest a brushless system would there be anything that come in cheap or are they expensive due to greater reliability?

Thank you :-D

The issue with the Ansmann "Clash" motors for me was complete absence of torque, but I know someone else here (eddrick) has had at least one disintegrate

I suggested the Tamiya Sport Tuned (23T motor) as I've found it's a good balance between extra speed (30% or so - which is enough to go noticeably faster, but still be controllable), a comparable reduction in battery life/running time (again around 30% - so if yourbattery lasts 20 minutes on a kit 27T silvercan, it'll last around 14 on a Sport Tuned), and cost - around

Ha, Annsmann Clash motors - bin-fodder! Apart from being useless, they do like to set fire to themselves &/or have the internals break up.

After a small experiment with a 21 turn Clash, I think half the performance problem is with the weak magnets - I stuffed the rotor into another can & it went much better. Lots of vibration & heat though.

For performance motors that don't break the bank (Or themselves), my favourites are anything in the "Epic" can eg "Revenge of the Monster" (Epic motors have open endbell, lay-down brushes, flatted vented can & lightened rotor).
There's also a nice man on Ebay selling standard 540s with a white endbell at the mo. I don't know exactly what they are, but they're only 5 or 6 quid & they're noticeably livelier than the Tamiya kit motors. Not mega performance by any means, but certainly better

wight endbell are johnson motors. Standard motors but option motors some years ago for tamiya. I have some ones but I found no differences with the mabushi. One my lunches and midnight, I had johnson's motors in boxes... If someone have an idea of that????

stingray-63 wrote:

wight endbell are johnson motors...

Eddrick was referring to these ... I got a few myself, apart from badly stencilled-on voltage, manufacture date & a serial/batch number that meant nothing when I searched for it on Google, they have no distinguishing marks.