[sanddrag]

Treat the motors right nice and they will treat you nice. And I don't mean you have to drive like you are on fluffy clouds. Just never drop them and don't modify them and don't slam them from full throttle one direction to the other direction. Mount them well and gear them well and they are an excellent motor. Think about this: How many people ever take apart their bosch drill to take out the pins in the gearbox or to modify the shifter. None. What happens? The drill lasts forever. The thing is just not made to be taken apart. So, if you just trust Bosch engineering and don't srew around with it, you won't have any drill problems. If you take it apart a first time, it will take itself apart the next time. If you just used it like you got it, it wouild have been fine.

Now, maybe you never did open your gearboxes before you had any problems. Then, I would attribute the problem to improper mounting, gearing, or alignment.

I just fail to see how my team had the Chias coupled right to the output shaft of the drill and we used the provided mounts and couplers and we had horrible alignment but never ever had any problems. We were crashing and shoving and flipping other robots all over the place too.

If we do get the same motors next year year here are couple tips that work: you can lock the shifter into place with a single zip tie around the body of the gearbox just fore or aft of the shifter. Also, nearly all teams have complained of overheating. All but the "fluffiest" driving will cause this. Do yoursef a favor and invest in some heat sinks and you will never have any problems with overheating again. Let me know if you have no idea where to get them and I'll tell you. If installed properly, you won't even need any fans.