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Old 04-05-2013, 10:44 AM   #5 (permalink)
Ryland
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Western Wisconsin
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honda cb125 - '74 Honda CB 125 S1
90 day: 79.71 mpg (US)

green wedge - '81 Commuter Vehicles Inc. Commuti-Car

Blue VX - '93 Honda Civic VX
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I run my motors at 12v or so to wear the brushes in, the motor for my car is an open face motor so it has to be on an axle to have the drive end support bearing so that does add some drag to it, for that motor I run it at 18v.
You of course don't want to over speed the motor (they will self destruct!) but I was told that nearing max speed will wear it in faster because you are looking for as many revolutions as possible, if you want to play it safe tho slowing the motor down will just cause it to take more time to wear in, you can tell when they are wore in by a nice even shine on the part of the brush that rides on the commutator, I get mine really close by using sand paper on the commutator with the grid facing out then sanding the carbon brush down till it fits snug, then let the motor wear it in the rest of the way.

I wouldn't worry as much about water as I would dirt and grit, my car has air intakes on the sides of the car, up away from the wheels, but if you are pulling air from the engine compartment, near the wheels then at the very least a chunk of stainless steel screen seams like a good idea, an over sized cone air filter like someone might put on their supped up pickup truck would get everything filtered out without costing a lot.

what brand of motor do you have? if it has holes for checking/replacing the brushes then that would be the ideal place to force air in, a number of companies make clamp on bands with a duct inlet for cooling motors.
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