Curtis Schlaht

XXX Brush Tips & Maintenance:


To help you get the most out of your XXX brushes and maintain consistent motor performance we’ve outlined a few steps for you to follow…

Brush Orientation: It is very important to take special precautions that your XXX brushes be reinstalled in the same orientation they were broken-in with. For easy identification scribe a small mark on the top of the brush, as this will easily help you identify the proper orientation for brush reinstallation…
Why is this important you might ask? (Good question)… As most of you know proper brush alignment is critical for making maximum power, whether in a spec or a modified motor this is how the current travels to the armature. Event thought the brush may appear the be wearing evenly across the brush face 9 times out of 10 the brush is not perfectly aligned with the center of the commutator. IF one were to reinstall the brush in the opposite orientation the brushes would need to fully reseat in the opposite direction before maximum power can be obtained. Because the XXX brush is a low wear brush this could take up to 2-3 runs before the brushes become fully seated to the commutator, during which time the motor would appear to have a lack of power until the brushes reseated…

Cleaning The Brush Face: You would think that cleaning the brush face would be a no-brainer. But there’s always someone out there that can goof-up even the simplest tasks. So we’ve gone and outlined a simple but affective cleaning process that works quite well.
If you don’t already own a comm stick do yourself a favor and pick one up at your local hobby shop. My preferred choice is the Parma fiberglass comm stick for about $2, and will last forever (or until you loose it). Now I’ll be honest here and let you know the fiberglass comm stick works way better for this than the eraser style comm cleaning sticks…. But if you can’t find a fiberglass comm stick the Racers Edge (green) comm. stick will work fine….
Your main objective here is to deglaze the brush face and expose a fresh layer of brush material. Exercise finesse and do this carefully as too preserve the natural curvature of the brush face. This is accomplished be gently swiping the comm stick across the face of the brush until most of the glaze is gone. It is not necessary to remove 100 percent of the glaze, just clean the surface as best you can, while being careful not to use excessive pressure when cleaning…Don’t Forget to clean the sides of the brush as this is where a good portion of the current is passed from the brush hood to the brush itself….
Cleaning the brush with motor spray is not necessary unless you detect some sort of foreign residue, as the motor spray with it’s harsh chemicals will remove the natural lubricant from the brushes surface causing a slight amount of arching to occur during break-in….

Break-In, Reseating The Brush: Now if all has gone well and you’ve carefully reassembled your motor no more than 300 seconds should be required to reseat the brushes (more time wouldn’t hurt though). Our standard break-in voltage for a mod motor is .8v with a fan or 1.2v without a fan. For spec motors we use 1.5v with a fan and 2.5v without a fan….

New Brush Break-In: Sometimes the brush face can be slightly deformed just enough so that no matter how long you break them in for the brushes just won’t seat properly. We recommend that new XXX brushes be broke-in 500 seconds and then run on the track for two runs before you consider them properly seated. After that follow our cleaning and break-in procedure and you’ll be good to go…