[Al Skierkiewicz]

Everyone,
I recommend that teams use uninsulated push on terminals. Most of the motors have a protective coating that prevents solder from bonding with the motor terminal. I scrape the motor contacts first with a sharp blade to remove the coating. (This coating is broken through by the contacts when used in production) We solder all terminals on the wires first. Then push the terminal on the motor terminal. Large irons are not needed for this operation but your iron should have a large tip. We are using 30 watt irons with a 1/4" flat chisel point for this operation. Melt a fair amount of solder on the tip of the iron to give good heat transfer, then touch the iron to the back side of the wire terminal. Apply solder to the split side of the wire terminal until it starts to flow and then remove the iron from the terminal. You don't need a lot of solder, just enough to hold the terminal in place. We then add heatshrink tubing to insulate the joint, run the motor wires down along the motor and secure them to the motor with wire ties. We use PowerLoc connectors on the other ends to allow quick removal and replacement.
FP motor in particular have internal thermal cutouts. If you apply heat for too long or at too high a temp, the thermal mechanism or brush assembly will actually move out of alignment. When this occurs, the motor will trip out early or fail to produce the expected power. Essentially this kills the motor.