Tips on replacing hbfp v1 tail motor

My tail motor has finally gone out on me (and right as I was getting good at nose-in hover). Anyhow, I'm very new to soldering and I was wondering if there were any good advice to desoldering and resoldering the tail motor. A few questions:
-Do I desolder the old wire or just cut it and start over
-If desolder, what is the best way
-Do I tin the wire, then the connector, and then reheat the connector solder and place wire in flowing solder
-Any other advice is much appreciated

I'm probably thinking too much about this, but I want to make sure I do it right.

Thanks

First make note of how the old moter is oriented, if necessary, take a picture.

Then just touch the iron to each connection to heat it up and pull the wire off.

Remove the motor, be careful as the screws are so small. I like to do heli repairs over a white terricloth towell. If you drop a small part, they kind of stick to it and they are easier to see against the white.

Install new motor.

Connect wire to lug on motor, hold iron to connection and touch solder to connection and remove iron from connection.

Don't touch connection or wire for a few seconds to allow it to cool a bit and to avoid a cold or cracked solder joint.

Thats it. It's like eating lettuce. Nothin to it.

Donnie D

Okay, don't cut the wire! There is not that much extra. Find a soldering iron with a small tip, if it's new, you will have to tin it. You will want some fine electrionic solder. Heat up the iron until the solder will melt on the tip and kind of coat it. If it doesn't wipe the tip on a wet sponge to clean it. If its an old iron you may have to carefully file it back to a clean point. Then try and tin it. Note which is the red wire lug and which is the black one, compare the two motors and mark the plus (red) lug on the new motor. Next using a pair of tweezers or small needle nose pliers, gently pull on the wires as you heat them with the hot iron. Remove the old motor and re-install the new one. Lightly apply a small amount of solder to the lugs, this must be done quickly and neatly. Then again holding the wire (with the tweezers or pliers) to the lug hold real still and touch the iron to the joint, when the solder melts remove the iron and let it cool, give it a gentle tug, if it stays, do the other one. You can take some small wire similar to the stuff on the helo and after tinning it, practice on the old motor. Good luck
also listen to Uncle Donnie!

Good explanation Chief.

Donnie D

Thanks

Hey Chief,

Did you see my question to you about the decals over on my Bell 47 thread?

Donnie D

For more info on how to solder, you can read in here:

http://www.elexp.com/t_solder.htm
http://www.acehardware.com/info/index.jsp?categoryId=1284871

haven't had to replace a tail motor (or main one for that matter) on my HBFP v2 yet. Will I have to cut and solder wires? I hope not, I don't have a soldering gun. Was a pretty simple exercise to swap out motors on my Lama V4.

What exactly is involved in changing a tail motor on the HB V2? Also, when a main motor goes out, you can just unscrew it from the bottom through the main gear right? It's not a massive de-assembling exercise right?

Eddie NYC wrote:

haven't had to replace a tail motor (or main one for that matter) on my HBFP v2 yet. Will I have to cut and solder wires? I hope not, I don't have a soldering gun. Was a pretty simple exercise to swap out motors on my Lama V4.

What exactly is involved in changing a tail motor on the HB V2? Also, when a main motor goes out, you can just unscrew it from the bottom through the main gear right? It's not a massive de-assembling exercise right?

Yes you will have to solder and you can get a decent soldering iron for about $10-$20 at your local auto-parts or hardware store or radio shack.

Pretty self explanitory on changing the tail motor. Cheif did a hell of a job explaining it in this thread that you are reading.

You are correct on the main motor.

J.

ok, thanks. so need to get a small soldering iron and some skinny electrical solder? There are different types?

Yep, there are different types of solder.

J.

Thanks for all the help. I plan on replacing the motor this weekend. It looks like my soldering iron got lost in our last move so I need to get a new one. What are some good ones to get? I plan on progressing to bigger better helis. It looks like I at least need a 40w. The only soldering I would be doing is on helis. Thanks again

Radio shack has this or Home depot has this.

If you happen to need any parts you can also get one when you order parts.

The possibilities are endless!!!!!

J.

almost bought that soldering iron at radio shack (link from above), is there a difference between and $8 and $15-$20 one. Also, they had a few different types of solder: crystal flux, rosin, silver, etc. I had no idea what to get so could someone let me know what I need for this. Also, will the same solder work on my guitar when a wire comes off of an input jack. would assume so.

What I've been using for all my soldering is Radio Shack .032 dia., 60/40, light duty Rosin-Core Solder. Item # 64-005 E.

Works fine for me.

Donnie D

thanks, will pick it up tomorrow.

Is there any reason for getting a temp controlled soldering station just to work on rc electrics? I've been eying the Weller WLC100 Soldering Station. It has power setting option but not precise temp adjustment.

No, no need for a specific temp controlled iron. Ye standard 'ol $5 iron will work fine. Easy for me to say though, I solder most of my stuff at work in the lab with a $1,200 digitally controlled iron I can dial in any temp from 1-900 F.

I'm obviously getting ahead of myself since I don't even have a tail motor problem yet (but bought a spare and just picked up an iron and some solder), but what is the process from taking off and detaching the old motor. I haven't taken the tail apart and don't know how much wire is in the boom etc, but do you desolder/melt-off the wire from the old motor then re-solder on to the new one, or cut the wire....or something else.

Thanks!

You should be able to put just a little heat on the solder joint with the iron (let it warm up several min to get to full temp first). At the same time, just take hold of the wire and pull it off once the solder melts. You do not want to cut the wire because there is not that much slack to work with. Next time you do a parts order, grab a spare set of motor wires (usually about $1 where most parts are sold).

Wayne wrote:

Next time you do a parts order, grab a spare set of motor wires (usually about $1 where most parts are sold).

Aha, thanks. Good call. hadn't thought about wires before because motors on my Lama V4 just had the wires plugged into them.

Well I swapped at motors and everything seems to be working fine. The solder joints are not the best looking but they work. The hardest part was the radio shack soldering iron tip was pretty big and the motor lugs were so small it was hard to keep the solder from touching the solder iron tip. Anyhow its working for now and the connection seems solid. Thanks for all the help now I can get back to flying.