Hi, im a junior at Greenville Highschool in Michigan. We picked back up our electric car program in 2004 and all of our equipment is from the mid 90's. We run in a knockoff of Eletrathon America for Michigan called NECA. The only differnce is classes. Open class is just that, open to all designs. We're in the stock class. Its a little more strict on design and the main rule is a $2500 spending limit and our car being from the 90's its not even close to that. I believe we are at $1750 including motor and everything . Thats were i thought i could get a little advice from you guys. We need a new efficient motor and controller and i have no clue were to look. Remember its on a budget, thanks for the help.

Hello, this is Zaine speaking.  I would go check out ebay.  Ebay is selling Etek motors on their site for a reasonable price around $300-$600.  Most of the teams in the Northwest region run Etek motors on the cars, they work fabulously!

It will be hard to beat an Etek for efficiency. Find one if you can. he controler can be any of a number of them. I am not sure how your "spending" is judged, but you should easily be able to stay well under your limits. If you find a motor on Ebay for $300 and your buddy finds the exact same motor for $600 how do they judge spending?

It pretty much gos by retail price along with honesty. I think if these Etek motors are as popular as you say the officials might know what there priced at. I did some research on these Etek motors and i came across 4 and would like your guys opinion. The 4 i found was- the original Etek, the Etek-R, the Etek-RT(for torque) and the brushless Etek. I also read from previous posts that any brushless motor needs a brushless designed controller and can send you back quite a bit in funds. but would it be worth it?

The original eTek I think is still the best if it is in good shape. The eTek-R is the next best as several teams in the NW have tested these against the original and they seem to be nearly the same except they weigh a little more. The eTek-RT I have not seen anyone that has used one to see how they do. One local new team bought both an 'R' and 'RT' and were going to compare them but they only came to 2 races and did not do well at either one so no data on that on. I have heard some bad things about the brushless as far as power and efficiency that they claim not being true but again I do not know. Mike

hmm that seems odd. The whole concept of a brushless is less friction inside the motor so its more efficient. They also have more HP then the original Etek cause brushless motors can be more compact so they beefed it up to the original Etek size for mounting purposes so that doesn't make sense. but then again you got me worried if its worth spending close to a grand on it cause i dont know if its a case of the manufacture not knowing how to utilize this new technology.

I do not know that anyone has successfully use the the brushless etek, not the motors fault but the Sevcon controller was built for 36 volts and this has been a huge problem trying to get it to operate at 24 volts. The original etek has been most popular and works very well.

The etek-R has a no load current draw of about 7amps while the etek no load current is about 3 amps. You can change the spring tension on the R to drop the no load current draw to about 4 amps but that is close to the limit.

So i pretty much want to find the original briggs and stratton Etek?

Yes, that would be the thing to do or keep what you have and look for other areas to improve your car and racing abilities.

-- Edited by bd64 on Friday 12th of February 2010 09:01:05 PM

Well now i feel stupid, i never checked what motor we had cause it was so old i never thought it would be good at all but i guess what we have in is the original etek from briggs & stranton. If its been in use from the mid 90's would i need to get new brushes and would that make it more efficient? and where could i find them?

You likely do not need new brushes, they are rated for 3000 hours of use before changing.

Post a pic of your motor and we can tell you what it is. If it looks like a starter it is likely a Scotts, if it looks like an alternator it is likely an Etek. Aaron

Yea it defiantly looks like a alternator and i might post a pic but the serial numbers indicate its a briggs and stratton etek

If your wondering about getting more brushes, I would go check out thunderstruckmotors.com.  they come in sets of eight brushes. You'll have extra, but you be able to keep your motor running for a while.

bd64 wrote:

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The etek-R has a no load current draw of about 7amps while the etek no load current is about 3 amps. You can change the spring tension on the R to drop the no load current draw to about 4 amps but that is close to the limit.

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How do you change the spring tension?

 

Typically, spring tension is determined by a heating and cooling process. I never tried on the etek-r motors because we do not own one, but if we did I would first do some testing on mouse trap springs and pen springs on any other similar spring I could find.

New motor...  what do you think?

http://www.cloudelectric.com/product_p/mo-me-0909.htm

^^^Someone buy that and lmk how it works!

I haven't saw those around on the internet. I don't trust the description though. It sounds too good to be true. Then again i think its brand new to the market.


-- Edited by jakeb2011 on Monday 1st of March 2010 09:07:19 PM

I'm pretty sure that these are commonly called the eTEK-R. They are basically the same motor but a little heavier and the brush cap is the same size as the aluminum motor body. Todd Blackman from Pasco, WA ran one day at PIR with an original eTEK and the second on an eTEK-R and went almost the same distance. His car is not the most aerodynamic so may not have been a great test but at least they seem to be a viable alternative. Steve Cloud on the same site also has an original eTEK for sale at over $1000 if you care to purchase it. I'm glad I bought 27 of them when they were less than $300 each. Those should last me until I retire even with our 20+ cars. Mike

Its a differnt serial # than the Etek R and RT and I've saw on another site too that they won't be avaiable til april 1st 2010 so I think this is another variation of the Etek R and RT that's brand new but probly not a whole lot better

6 inch diameter and 5/8" shaft -- it is definately different that an R. Maybe the little brother of the R like r or something

Do any of you guys see lynch motors being run? We race against one team and their setting records with a lynch motor but they also have a really good design.