Drill motor brush support

[CharlieWilken]

The drill motors have an incredibly small piece of plastic that holds the brushes into the motor. This plastic can break with a 4 inch drop of the motor to the ground. We now have one broken and I cant figure a way to fix it. Does anyone have a technique for protecting this miniscule piece of plastic from breaking? Thanks in advance
Also does anyone have a fix for this broken piece. We are missing half the plastic piece.

[dhendrix]

FIRST off, The drop test will work every time. Don't try that one any more.
Order a new one and a spare. We dropped one last year. The motor mount
that FIRST sends will hold the brush in. If I remember correctly.

[KenWittlief]

sometimes you can fix it with a small tie wrap.

[Ryan Curry]

I've had success putting a broken brush bat into the motors with some strong epoxy.

-Rc

[Al Skierkiewicz]

As Ken has said earlier, a small tywrap works pretty well if all that is broken is the retaining tang. Make sure that the brush assy slides into place correctly and does not move around, then apply the tywrap around both brush assemblies directly behind the brushes. Don't forget that the fan end of the motor is the brush end. Don't cover the exhaust ports with the tywrap or the motor will overheat.
If the end assy is broken and the brushes do not align properly, there is virtually nothing you can do to fix this. Epoxy might make it ok to use on a proto robot or as an emergency spare. I wouldn't trust it for competition. I saw too many teams die in matches when their brush repair failed or the brushes fell out.

[SarahB]

Originally Posted by Ryan Curry

I've had success putting a broken brush bat into the motors with some strong epoxy.

-Rc

Actually, there wasn't any success. As soon as we removed the rubber band that held in the brush, it fell off. Thus we are now ordering a couple of replacement motors.

[Ryan Curry]

Originally Posted by SarahB

Actually, there wasn't any success. As soon as we removed the rubber band that held in the brush, it fell off. Thus we are now ordering a couple of replacement motors.

I didn't mean that specific one, i ran out of epoxy before I could finish that job.

-Rc

[CharlieWilken]

Darn it - We broke a second one.....however we did invent a plactic insert that can hold everythng in place even when the locating surface is broken.