# What happened to my motor???



## copperheadroad69 (Nov 27, 2013)

I've been working on my E-ATV project and thought I had it about licked. It's a 2002 Yamaha warrior I converted. With everything assembled I got about 4 minutes of riding and fried the brush harness in the motor. The motor is essentially new out of a riding floor scubber. It's an imperial 36v 100 amp, 3.6HP constant duty PMM. I took the motor apart and everything other than the melted wires for the brushes looked new. I reassembled the motor with new wires and had the same result(almost) in the same time frame. On paper I thought it would be a perfect motor for my humble needs, I'm not looking for anything high performance just maybe a 10-20mph forest mule. I'm using a new Alltrax AXE 4834 set to 80%, new solenoid/diode/resister set and marine 101 AH batteries. Anyone have any initial ideas? I thought about bulking up with brush leads and trying again but I hate to ruin the motor if it just won't work, it would make me a great generator if nothing else.


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## major (Apr 4, 2008)

copperheadroad69 said:


> I've been working on my E-ATV project and thought I had it about licked. It's a 2002 Yamaha warrior I converted. With everything assembled I got about 4 minutes of riding and fried the brush harness in the motor. The motor is essentially new out of a riding floor scubber. It's an imperial 36v 100 amp, 3.6HP constant duty PMM. I took the motor apart and everything other than the melted wires for the brushes looked new. I reassembled the motor with new wires and had the same result(almost) in the same time frame. On paper I thought it would be a perfect motor for my humble needs, I'm not looking for anything high performance just maybe a 10-20mph forest mule. I'm using a new Alltrax AXE 4834 set to 80%, new solenoid/diode/resister set and marine 101 AH batteries. Anyone have any initial ideas? I thought about bulking up with brush leads and trying again but I hate to ruin the motor if it just won't work, it would make me a great generator if nothing else.


Looks like there are 2 wires from the terminal bolt to the brush holder at 9 o'clock and then a single wire from 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock. If the 9 o'clock brush hung up or otherwise wasn't fully conducting, then the single wire across from 9 to 3 o'clock would carry full current and overheat. Kind of a poor connector design IMO. I'd run wire from the bolts to all the brush holders. Keep the cross connections for equalization. Make sure all brushes are free to move with the springs and seated.

Also I wonder about your drive ratio. Is it just the 2 sprockets? That rear doesn't look very large. What is the ratio? Not enough gear will cause the motor to run slow and high current. Got an ammeter?


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## elevatorguy (Jul 26, 2007)

My converted warrior draws over 400 amps on start and 130-150 at 1/2 speed.
I think if you do what Major suggests and also change the gearing with a jackshaft you could use the motor you have.
I know my motor gets pretty warm with low speed and multiple starts.


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## copperheadroad69 (Nov 27, 2013)

Thank you both for the great input! I think I'm going to rewire again like you suggested Major, I'm thinking I'm going to look for some heavier wire as well. Really if you stop and think about it 10G wire feeding the brushes on a motor like that is pretty asinine, makes me using 2G wire pretty pointless. I have a DVOM but unless I'm mistaken that doesn't to me much good for a 100+ amp circuit?

I know the stock gearing is not good, I definitely want something MUCH lower when it's all said and done. My issue is that I am looking to eventually go to a belt drive, probably off of a Harley Sportster but I wasn't wanting to start that process until I had the electric side straight in order to make sure this will do what I want. Have you ever seen a jackshaft assembly on one of these Elevatorguy? Seems to me that would be pretty tough on a swingarm suspension.


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## major (Apr 4, 2008)

copperheadroad69 said:


> I know the stock gearing is not good,


Bad gearing will kill a motor even with beefed up brush connectors.


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## elevatorguy (Jul 26, 2007)

Have you ever seen a jackshaft assembly on one of these Elevatorguy? Seems to me that would be pretty tough on a swingarm suspension.[/QUOTE said:


> I haven't seen a jackshaft used on a quad, but I am sure it can be done, I have been tempted to gear mine down a bit but never got around to it. As is, I have pushed and pulled cars with it (not recommended).
> I ordered the largest rear sprocket I could find and used the smallest front I could, I found the rear sprocket on ebay.


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