hey!i am awaiting two mt chassis i won on ebay,and instead of motor brushes,they have balled up copper braid.the guy says it is an old racers trick,so i tried it with some replacement braid for one of my 1/43 cars,and man my mt is just flyin!no chassis mod necessary,and no tiny springs to lose when working on the car!if nothing else,its a quick fix if you lose a spring or a brush!just thought it was a neat idea!so does anyone out there do this also?just curious...

I have seen where guys just put the p/up shoe springs in the holder stretched beyond beyond, Drag Cars mostly, it will make them fly, but you pay for it as every revolution of the arm eats the copper off the comm.

yes it works well however the idea of the brush is that it is conductive and expendible, as the arm spins it consumes the brush. With the braid the "BRUSH" is now as hard a material as the comm plate and will wear the commutator much faster. Good for a drag car, no so good for a road race/ daily driver.

the guy i am getting them from told me the brush material is very soft,as not to eat the comm plate,and also cleaning it at the same time...i do see your point well,however and do not want to fry a good motor!

i have cars with 1000s of laps with spring only for brush all i do is put a drop of oil on spring and com every time i pull it out of my box ran them mainly on ovals
5 min heats and oiled every other lane the com still looks good and the cars fly

i have cars with 1000s of laps with spring only for brush all i do is put a drop of oil on spring and com every time i pull it out of my box ran them mainly on ovals
5 min heats and oiled every other lane the com still looks good and the cars fly

Have you ever checked the ohm reading from the pick up to the comm plate? Since oil is an insulator I would think it would inhibit performance. I have heard of using just the spring before. I have never done it so I would have to accept your word as to the condition of the arms after their use.
On this one I was speaking more as an elevator mechanic ( work on dc brushed motors all day long) than a slothead. I would try it on one car abuse it and see the results.,

Some of Faller's MT versions from the 70's were brushless, plus they had bigger arms too

Some of Faller's MT versions from the 70's were brushless, plus they had bigger arms too

what did they use a wiper contact?

No, on the one I have, they just used a metal tip on the end of the brush spring

well,after a bunch of laps,i checked the comm plate.clean as a whistle!but i did notice some copper on the braids,so i switched back to stock set up...i will keep you posted on the ones i am waiting for,might be softer braid material,we shall see...i would imagine just the springs would eventually wear down the comm plate,i dunno...

I'm with Chris. I've done thousands of DC drives. The brushes are always considered an (normal wear item) item in all cases except for cheap one and done disposable toys.

Brushes are soft for a reason, so as to limit wear/friction to the comm. and still provide good current transfer across a moving surface; there by providing a good service life for the mechanism in which the drive is installed.

You can run any darn thing ya want on the comm so long as it is conductive and will float to some degree. The question is "What is the optimum material for the expected service life."

wow.as always well said!i will get springs and brushes,as i think i am in agreement with you guys...just thought it was neat as i had never seen this approach before...longevity is much better for my budget,anyways!thanks for the input,once again.very constructive!