Motor soldering

[Ardz83]

Hi guys.
I have a small problem when I take my car out for a little bash the black wire keeps coming off the motor. Is it getting to hot and melting the solder? Or am I just crap at soldering!!

I don't keep it on full throttle alot either. Any help would be great.

Thanks on advance.
Dan

[sosidge]

Depends on how hot the motor is. If it is cool to the touch when the wire falls off, it is probably your soldering. Remember that the key is to apply heat to the wire contact area and flow the solder in, rather than heat the solder itself.

[dobber]

Hi guys.
I have a small problem when I take my car out for a little bash the black wire keeps coming off the motor. Is it getting to hot and melting the solder? Or am I just crap at soldering!!

I don't keep it on full throttle alot either. Any help would be great.

Thanks on advance.
Dan

I think you'll find your crap at soldering ;)

Heat up the terminal and use a solder sucker to remove the old solder. Heat the cable end too and once you see the solder melt give the cable a shake to remove the excess solder from the cable.
Tin both ends with a bit of solder, heat up the motor terminal and then bring the cable to the terminal. Wait till you see both the solder on the terminal and the cable melt then apply some more solder. Remove the heat, and allow to cool naturally.
Do not blow it etc or it could give you a dry joint. That should do it :)

[ch!3f]

list of things to help find the problem,

1 car
2 esc
3 motor
4 gears pinion and spur gear

this will enable people to give you an idea on what can be causing the problem also pic of your soldering after you have done it

[leeleefocus]

Your motor won't be getting hot enough to melt the solder. The two most likely causes are your soldering is poor causing a high resistance joint. This can create enough heat to desolder itself or the joint is so poor it is simply breaking because of vibration/movement when your driving.

Dobber's advice is good for soldering motor wires.

You may not have a gutsy enough iron to actually solder it properly.

[teamorsum96]

i use a 240watt soldering iron and thats 1 tough son of a gun lol great for batteries and motors :D

[Ardz83]

Thank you all for the replies.

[SlowOne]

These days the solder does not contain lead - health and safety and all that - as lead and flux fumes are pretty nasty things. Get yourself a small tin of paste flux. Before putting solder on the wire or the terminal, a small blob of flux is all you need. Now bring in the iron, wire and solder and so as you usually do. Flux paste will help remove the oxidised layer from the solder, and give you a nice shiny solid joint first time. HTH :)

PS - do not use Bakers or any other type of liquid acid flux, as that will eat into the parts and is not good!!

[kartdemon]

Try and get leaded solder. Far better. A number of places still sell it.

And motors can get hot enough to melt solder when pushed to the limit!

[ianhaye]

are your solder joints shiny? shiny = strong joint, dull= crap joint

[adon30]

I still have sn63 (lead) solder for sale.

As far as soldering goes. Make sure to use a good flux to improve solder flow. Heat is the most important thing. Keep the joint hot while the solder flows. That is both the wire and what you are soldering to. I am sure there must be soldering examples on YouTube. Make the solder flow around the joint before removing the heat. The solder will cool to solid in a few seconds (but will still be hot). It's hard to explain good soldering, but practise helps.

Always make sure you clean any flux off the joint after using ipa (alcohol) and have a nice clean tidy joint.

[leeleefocus]

Try and get leaded solder. Far better. A number of places still sell it.

And motors can get hot enough to melt solder when pushed to the limit!

What motor do you know of that will run at 183c+

[Ardz83]

Tbf the solder was soft after I ran the car.

[smarkham]

If you can get some of the old leaded solder its much better any medical grade solder i.e for manufacturing medical equipment is exempt from the rohs compliance as it gives better joints. I think rs and farnells still do leaded solder but you wont find any on the high street these days.

[smarkham]

Also always have a bit of solder on your iron before you start tinning or soldering joints it improves heat transfer no end and a shiney joint isnt always a good joint as to much solder will create a shiney joint as well so dont drown it with solder.

[tomtom]

For once here, that's totally my domain of expertise.

Non leaded ROHS are way more difficult to work with, you need a decent iron, not necessary a high temp. Use to set temp to 390 Celsius but sometimes for large solder points or desoldering I push to 400 and up.

The joint will not be shiny most of the time, strange at first but ok, could be hard to spot a dry joint. As far as desoldering in use, the non leaded should flow at a higher temp so might be better here, oxidation due to external factors less likely too.

Always start with a clean tip (sometimes black deposit recover the tip due to the non-leaded aspect), heat one of the surface start pushing solder to the tip then once it flow move to the tab and add the second surface heating the two at once. If temp is right solder will flow through both conductors then will follow gravity and leave the joint, that's when you will quickly need to stop applying heat. Remember to keep the two surfaces in contact without moving especially after applying heat (10sec or so to be safe), wear a glove or use a towel if you hold the wire by hand.

Solder is no glue to keep components together, try to make a good physical contact, use a hole if there is one.

Inspect the joint and if really needed reflow the joint and add some more solder (you need to reflow the whole joint). Be sure to use the sponge to remove any solder from the tip each time.

You need to find a good medium between too less/too much solder. Don't add too much solder when you tint at first.

I couldn't solder a proper joint on motors with a 12AWG wire in 5 seconds like stated in manuals with non-leaded. 10s I think. Wait for the motor/ESC to cool down completely between each solder to be safe, the components inside those ESC don't like heat at all.

[Ardz83]

Thanks again for all the replies. much respect:)

[smarkham]

Some good advice above as stated it should only take a couple of seconds of heat to create a good joint. A clean iron is one of the main keys to a good joint. Soldering is an art and takes a fair bit of practice to get good results.

[Ardz83]

Yeah i should just practice on stuff first i guess. I can only get better,if not i will tig weld them on lol:)

[smarkham]

Long way away i know but if you get stuck im only an hours drive away and im happy to solder stuff for you and check stuff over in my workshop. I still use leaded solder as i work in the medical industry. I must say being able to get leaded solder i would never use rohs compliant stuff its pap.