AQ Motley Crew - please check your water pickups before your first run

[Stinger9D9]

I have a feeling sometimes that my life is only to serve as a warning to others.

On my first run with my new MC, it cut out after about 1 minute, then after I limped it back in, the motor temp was sky high (still over 120F about 5 mins afterward when I got to my thermometer).

The boat had been running DRY. I think I found the cause. Please everyone, double check the water pickup tube on your boats before you run them. The brass water pickup tube on my boat was installed up so high that the silicone tubing was pinched shut by the step in the transom (see the photos - this is where the water pickup was when I got the boat new).

The motor is now fried (it screeches loudly when powered up and smells burnt).

I contacted hobby services and they were great (as always), they replied to my email FAST and will be sending a replacement motor (once our mail system is up and running again).

In the meantime, just to get her running, I put one of my old (blue) 1600kv SV27 motors in (after making up a slightly angled pickup tube to make sure it clears the hull). It turns out the ESC is fine and I had a blast with the boat - everything came in nice and cool (motor 101F, ESC 87F).

Anyway, learn from my experience and please check your water pickup before going out! This is probably a freak occurrence, but now that you know about the possibility, it doesn't take any time to check this on your boat just to be safe.

[Diesel6401]

Sorry about your boat, this is one of those reasons why it is so important to thoroughly check over your boat from front to back and check over every part of it prior to running it. One of those mass produced minor issues that cause major problems.

[Stinger9D9]

Yeah, I thought I had checked everything - the flex shaft (I even re-soldered it), the strut bushing (removed burrs and made sure it ran smooth), checked all the screws and even adjusted the stuffing tube in line with the motor.

I couldn't even have imagined that this would have happened. Oh well, live and learn.

Like I say at work, you never learn anything when everything goes well - you learn from your mistakes.

[Dietrich369]

I just purchased the motley crew boat and noticed the same problem,not as bad but I corrected the brass pickup,but still it seems not enough water seems to flow through the cooling system,I'm wondering if the hose diameter needs to be larger,or the pickup somehow corrected.?

[99z286spd]

I read the paper on top of the boat in the box about removing the fuel tubing protector before first run.... and I was so excited to run it the first time I completely forgot! How I didnt toast anything I dont know....Sorry to hear about your boat.

[Stinger9D9]

I just purchased the motley crew boat and noticed the same problem,not as bad but I corrected the brass pickup,but still it seems not enough water seems to flow through the cooling system,I'm wondering if the hose diameter needs to be larger,or the pickup somehow corrected.?

No, the hose diameter seems ok. I made a new water pickup from some spare brass tubing that was pretty much identical to the original (but it's bent a bit to make sure it clears the step in the transom). I kept an eye on the water outlet on my 2 runs (with my SV 27 motor) yesterday and a LOT of water was coming out of the water outlet.

You may want to adjust the depth of the tube to make sure it's about 1/16" (maybe a bit more) below the bottom of the hull. It doesn't seem to take much to flow a ton of water.

Also, check all your other fittings and inside the motor cooling jacket to make sure there are no blockages. Just to be safe, I took one of those cans of compressed air (not an air compressor - just the cans they use to blow out electronics) and blew through the system to make everything was clear before my runs yesterday.

[Stinger9D9]

I took the old motor apart yesterday to assess the damage. Remember, this motor ran once, for less than 2 minutes with little to no cooling flow (because of the blocked hose on the water pickup).

The two loose pieces next to the rotor are loose pieces of the material (epoxy?) that used to cover the magnets on the rotor. Also, look at the rotor, those two shiny magnets are 2 of the poles. I'm pretty sure they aren't supposed to be bare like that (the other 4 are still covered with the epoxy).

Interestingly, you can see numbers written on the other poles. Don't know what those numbers served during assembly...?

Anyway, the motor is pooched but Hobby Services is great about it. They'll get a new one out to me once our mail system is up and running again (can't blame them for our postal strike).

In the meantime, I have an extra AQ 1800kv motor on the way to my LHS so I can have the boat back together ASAP.