I have a 1/16 slash vxl (vxl-3m esc and 380 motor)
With the motor disconnected, the esc turns on and works just fine. it responds to my tx, and everything is good.
but as soon as I connect all 3 wires to the motor, the esc just shuts off.
any idea what the problem could be? do I need to buy a new motor?

Your motor is probably shorted out internally.

those traxxas escs are notoriously bad, especially the 1/10 ones that I know of. the motors are typically very good though, so its strange one would go out. it does sound like it is the motor though. if you open it up you should be able to smell a burnt smell or see some burned insulation to check for the motor shorts.

I took it apart and I don't see anything out of the ordinary?
I can't say I've ever taken apart a brushless motor though, so I could be missing something

You had something go wrong in there. The wire should be a copper color, not that shiny silver color.

what do you mean shiny silver color? perhaps it's the lighting, but the wire is all very coppery.

I'm referring to the first picture you uploaded. Inside the windings it looks silver. It may be the light.

it's mostly copper inside, but upon further inspection I think there are a few spots that are silver where I'm guessing the insulation burned and caused a short

Take any ohm meter, check resistance between

blue, yellow

yellow, white

white, blue


They should be very close in resistance. If any reading is 0 ohms or no reading on any of the 2 wires the motor is the problem. The readings should be low, I'm guessing but less than 2 or 3 ohms.
If the motor checks out, you probably have bad esc.

it reads .8 ohms across all 3

Sounds like the motor is good. Probably something with the esc , setup, or wiring

how do I test if my esc is bad?
like I said, without the motor, the esc seems to be working fine. it powers on and off, and responds to my transmitter input

You can't really determine if the esc is good or bad based on the lights that come on without a motor connected to it. Do you have another motor you can test with?

I'm getting a brushless rc18t in the mail soon, hopefully tomorrow or monday. but I don't have any other motors this size

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