A little tip about those drill transmissions and bearings

[archiver]

Posted by Ed Sparks at 2/6/2001 6:42 PM EST


Engineer on team #34, The Rockets, from Bob Jones High / New Century High and DaimlerChrysler.



I was having a little trouble this year with our drill motors heating up and went into a deep trance about what to do about it .....

I discovered a couple things that should have been obvious but for whatever reason, I've always looked around it.

1. I usually disassemble the transmissions 1st thing to remove those pesky backlash pins and to install 6mm set screws to disable the clutch. This time I stripped all of the grease from the parts and assembled them using a silicon based lubricant. You'll be surprised how much "drag" is eliminated and how much cooler your motors will run.

2. So now my brain is stuck on lubricants and I look at those needle bearings I just purchased from Small Parts and popped into our 'bot. Turns out that these babies are packed with a lubricant that is about as thick as tar. I couldn't even spin the bearing with my finger. Once again I stripped the old grease from these bearings and relubed with silicone. Now they actually act as bearings.

I use a product manufactured by "Slick 50" as my lubricant. I also break my transmissions down every now and then to inspect for wear and relube. So if you have a spare transmission lying around, give it a try. If you dont like it, you can always clean it and repack with grease. So far so good......