How to Get the Most Out of Your Mabuchi 540 Rs Johnson

The Mabuchi 540 RS, a.k.a. The “Johnson motor” is the standard motor that comes with most beginner kits, they are also cheap and often given out at race events so that no one has a competitive edge. There is a secret to getting a lot more power out of you 540, it’s called dipping, while this will reduce the life of the motor if you plan on competing at any point this is a critical step.
A little background.
There are two main types of motors, rebuildable and the solid can motors. The main difference (apart from not being able to pull the sealed can motors to bits) is that in the closed end bell motors you can’t replace the brushes, the brushes are the contact between the communicator and the electricity. Now to get the most performance out of your motor you need to get the brushed moulded to the communicator, the generally accepted method is to run your motor for a short time on low power, I normally use 2 AA batteries which give me about 3 volts. I run this for about 2-3 minutes then give it a break and run it for another 5 minutes.
The secret of dipping
By dipping you motor you speed up the process of moulding the brushed to the communicator, in sealed can motors the brushes are very hard, because the need to last a very long time. The trick is to submerge the motor in a glass of water, holding it by two wires at the back. Don’t worry it will run perfectly underwater and there is no risk to the motor. Do not use WD40 or any other lubricant, these tend to burn at high temperatures, and the inside of your motor will get very hot. It’s even possible to melt the brushes to the comm. Which is not so great for performance.
The real secret of dipping
Well to be honest it depends who you ask, but the actual solution used by the pro`s is a closely guarded secret, some people use a little soap in their solution, you can also buy commercial solutions which claim to give and extra 20%, personally I always use water, and if I’m only bashing with it I’ll just use the 3 volt dry method above.
A lot of the high end information is impossible to come across, people just don’t want to share their winning tactics with the world, the best option is experiment, by joining a racing club you get a lot of people who are more than happy to give you all the advise in the world, but one thing you’ll notice is that the advise will differ depending on who you ask. In most cases everyone is right and there isn’t a wrong way to do things in RC, you need to get out and see what works for you. Using basic guide like this to give you a head start, but the actual discovery of information is a big part of the fun.
If you invest the time you will get results.