Blade SR Tail Motor Replacement

[Scrubbs]

Hi all.

Great site, love the positive replies you all give. Nice to see!

(Okay, enough butt kissing)

So, here is my predicament. I am moving up to a Blade SR from an mCX, but am reading many horrible things regarding the cheap motors they have on the tail. I have no problem replacing (okay, maybe a little) with a better motor, but;
A) what type is a good one?
B) How does the voltage play into it?
C) Can any higher quality "E-Flite" motor be used?
D) Is it easy to replace?

ARGH!!! To many things to learn beforehand!!!!

My head hurts now........

[ronm3313]

The tail motor isn't hard to replace if you've ever done any soldering. (sp?) I can't answer the rest of your questions.

mCX to SR is a big jump. I went from mCX to mSR to SR and am struggling a little with the SR.

[Scrubbs]

Years of flight sims, video games, running excavator (hand eye coordination) for years will hopefully help out.

Can do minor repairs like you mention, if not, I have a great neighbour who can.

[QueadlunnRau]

The tail motor is very easy to replace.

Unsolder two wires at the end.
Remove the Direct-Drive Tail Rotor Blade/Prop Adapter.
Remove two philips screws.

Dats all she wrote. Some knuckle head has a video that might help a little somewhere.

http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=200663


You know this thread started at a really ironic time. Last night, through another forum, I was reading how some people had the tail motor burn out really quickly, I was thinking, how unlucky they were with their SR.

Well today at lunch, teaching my boss to hover, the tail motor burned out on his 24th flight. No crash, not wet today in seattle, just spun in mid air on hover and can smell the burned electronics smell coming from the tail motor.

HH has GREAT support, so I'm calling them now for a replacement. I'll also go to my LHS and pick up another, just a little concerned when the other motors might burn out. Not good during the middle of a flight.

[Scrubbs]

Are you going to replace with the same motor, or upgrade?

[QueadlunnRau]

Originally Posted by Scrubbs

Are you going to replace with the same motor, or upgrade?

I'm going to look around the LHS for an alternative motor that might fit.

I'm kinda scared to replace it with the same motor now, just teaching my boss how to hover ... would have been a disaster if the motor burned out during a full high flight.

I'm thinking maybe my Gyro rate is too high causing the motor to work harder? Not sure why it burned out soo quickly.

[Digger66]

It's funny how this question was posted as I was about to change out my tail motor as I thought the motor shaft was bent from a crash. But running the motor without the blade the shaft seems fine. How true does the tail rotor run on these? I do have a replacement rotor as well. Any thoughts on this?

[Bluerocktj]

Interesting to hear the reports on reliability of the tail motors here. It's the same motor that's on the Blade CP Pro 2 and it does fine there. Here's a few links if you're interested:

http://helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=199598

http://www.helifreak.com/showpost.ph...0&postcount=14

[DKS_ONE]

Originally Posted by Digger66

It's funny how this question was posted as I was about to change out my tail motor as I thought the motor shaft was bent from a crash. But running the motor without the blade the shaft seems fine. How true does the tail rotor run on these? I do have a replacement rotor as well. Any thoughts on this?

If the motor shaft is running straight, probably just have to adjust the rotor. The two set screws on either side of the rear rotor adapter that hold it to the shaft have to be set right. If it wobbles, just loosen one and tighten the other. If it wobbles worse, loosen/tighten the opposite screws. I had the same issue, thought something was bent but really wasn't. Hope that helps.

[QueadlunnRau]

Originally Posted by Bluerocktj

Interesting to hear the reports on reliability of the tail motors here. It's the same motor that's on the Blade CP Pro 2 and it does fine there. Here's a few links if you're interested:

http://helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=199598

http://www.helifreak.com/showpost.ph...0&postcount=14

Normally I take hearing about failures with a grain of salt. But seriously nothing ever used to fail for me, I usually always have great luck with my toys/gadgets.

It's only when I start reading about how things fail that I get my bad luck. Like the Micro P-51D no issues when I got it, then I read about the motor pulsing issues, then my motor starts screaming and fails.

Same with my SR, everything is going GREAT untill I read on rcgroups of people with failing tail motors, I'm thinking, dang what bad luck they have. Then yesterday I'm teaching my boss on battery 18 to hover. Watching the SR spin out of control at 1ft off the ground. The smell of burned electronics from the tail rotor.

I NEVER have things break untill I read about them lol.

I'm wondering if all these failures are from people using the optional gyro rate setting from the TX. Mine was set to 71 which gave me only a slight tail wag? Maybe the SR ESC surges to fry the tail motor? I'll need to investigate further.

I'm still not fully confident with a same replacement motor, something caused it to burn out.

[ronm3313]

My LHS owner told me he recognizes a lot of the parts on the SR from other Blade models. He mentioned the SR motor is 1/3 larger than either the Blade 400 or CP, sorry I can't remember which. He acknowledged the smaller motor was burning out.

Wonder if a larger motor wasn't the entire answer?

[QueadlunnRau]

Called HH for a replacement motor. HH is AWESOME, again no problems setting up an RA/RMA.

So I thought I would take apart the motor to see what happened.

You can see in the pictures that one of the brushes burned off a corner.

When my replacement motor comes in, I will make sure to break them in properly.

[koi-fish]

Am replacing a tail motor today, and I cant get the aluminum part off that goes between the tail rotor and the motor body. Am concerned that I'll damage the motor body (not that it matters, it's bad here), but if I want to remove a good one, what's the trick to doing it?

[LeatherHelmet]

I thought surely that I could find, and electric motor this size,from a manufacturer in the US that would be better than the E-flite one, I googled and searched everywhere,with no luck. I am just barely flying the thing and have replaced 4 already.

[GD5015]

Brushed motors are notorious for short lifespan. When they go out, often there is little warning. Flying planes with them was not really a problem, you could just glide in. Too much heat is the biggest factor in life span. Try to adjust the motor to run as cool as possible. Might try the tail flip mod also.

John

[Jumna]

Ha, I just replaced one. I like to push with a finger on the tail prop holder in a way that counters the force trying to bend the shaft.

[LeatherHelmet]

[QUOTE=GD5015;3910855]Brushed motors are notorious for short lifespan. When they go out, often there is little warning. Flying planes with them was not really a problem, you could just glide in. Too much heat is the biggest factor in life span. Try to adjust the motor to run as cool as possible. Might try the tail flip mod also.

I tried the tail flip mod as well, didnt seen to work very well, had to over trim to get tail to hold.....maybe it was just me.....

[GD5015]

When I flipped mine the trim didn't change much at all. But I wouldn't think it unusual to have to go through the tail setup after the flip. The tail motor runs much cooler flipped.

John

[LeatherHelmet]

Hmm,maybe, I didnt flip the rotor, I saw on another thread,you had to flip the rotor, did you?

[GD5015]

Yes, flipped the rotor and swapped the wires. About 10 minutes and done. If too much trim is needed, then the proportional pot needs to be adjusted.

John