Motor smells

[Peakey]

I've just bought a secondhand motor that arrived today and it smells really burnt. None of my other motors have ever smelt at all. With me moving house on Friday I'm not going to have chance to test it for a while so will it be any good or not?

[OneKiwi]

Then its a good chance that its been overheated.
Thunderpower motors do smell a little Ive noticed

[Peakey]

It's an orion one and it doesn't just smell a little it's really bad.

[Chop chop]

Don't run it, my motor was smelling quite bad (burning smell) and the next meeting it went up in smoke after overheating......even to the point of un-soldering the connections to the motor on its own :-(

Could always take it apart and see if any signs of burning inside

[Danny Harrison]

It's an orion one and it doesn't just smell a little it's really bad.
I think I'd just politely ask to return it for a refund. Motors are the 1 thing I don't like to buy used to be honest.

[neallewis]

I wouldn't run it just yet.

If you have a decent multimeter, measure the resistance of each coil, from B to A and C, From A to B and C, and from C to A and and B. Note down all values. They should all be very close to identical.

You can also spin the rotor with a battery drill and measure the AC voltage induced on each coil. It should be the same on each phase.

If any coil readings are different I'd suspect the odd phase has burned/shorted out.

A sensor board could have gone (and been replaced), but I wouldn't have thought it would have burned up enough to cause such a smell. The hall sensors in the board are very low current devices, and basically react to the changing magnetic field to feedback the motors rotor position to the speed controller. The smell must be from the stator (coils).

[Peakey]

Hmmm my last multimeter died a couple of weeks ago and I still haven't replaced it. I'm gonna take it apart and have a look for obvious signs of damage and also have a word with the guy I bought it off.

[OneKiwi]

Maybe talk to the guy first before doing anything.

[Peakey]

I have had a word with the guy I bought it off, and he said it's been stored in the box he kept a motor that he had blown in and assured me that this one is fine. So when I get chance next week I'll have a good look at it and leave it out the box for a bit and see if the smell goes before I give it a test.