TOPIC:

I was reading this page on the 540 "Silvercan" & it struck me as not being very specific - I know there are two different manufacturers & that there are age-related endbell colour/material variations ... but I'm not sure that anyone has tried to document them. Looking at my cars that a) have silvercan motors in them, and b) provenance - i.e. a very good chane that the motor in there was the one it was original supplied with, I found up to 10 variants ...




"Mabuchi White Endbell"
White/"natural" Endbell
Yellow (cadmium) passivation
Endbell bearing holder: 16mm
Case: No slots, just magnet end stops
Pinion end: two threaded holes, 2 assymetric holes
Pinion end bearing holder: 13mm
Wires: none
Found in: 58004 XR311












"Johnson White Endbell"
White/"natural" Endbell
silver (zinc?) passivated
Endbell bearing holder: 13mm
Case: two large slots + magnet end stops
Pinion end: two threaded holes, 4 slots
Pinion end bearing holder: 13mm
Wires: none
Found in: as NIP spare with 58007 Cheetah










"Early Mabuchi, 2-slot"
Black plastic endbell, 2 letter code stamped in - I have an "N F" and an "M R"
silver (zinc?) passivated
Endbell bearing holder: 16mm
Case: two large slots + magnet end stops
Pinion end: two threaded holes, 2 large slots
Pinion end bearing holder: 13mm
Wires: yellow + green, no terminals
Found in: 58007 Cheetah, 58016 Sand Scorcher










"Early Mabuchi, 4-slot"
Black plastic endbell, 2 letter code stamped in - I have an "S C"
silver (zinc?) passivated
Endbell bearing holder: 16mm
Case: two large slots + magnet end stops
Pinion end: two threaded holes, 4 medium slots, stamped "JAPAN"
Pinion end bearing holder: 13mm
Wires: yellow + green, no terminals
Found in: 58035 Wild Willy M38





Johnson metal endbell "A"
Black metal endbell, "natural" nylon terminal holders
silver (zinc?) passivated
Endbell bearing holder: 13mm
Case: 4 very small slots + magnet end stops + small square hole
Pinion end: two threaded holes, 4 small slots
Pinion end bearing holder: 13mm
Found in: 58060 Monster Beetle, 58143 Mondeo BTCC, 58183 Volvo 850 BTCC, 58231 Wild Dagger, 58242 Wild Willy 2, 58321 Super Clod Buster










Johnson metal endbell "B"
Black metal endbell, large "natural" nylon terminal holders
silver (zinc?) passivated
Endbell bearing holder: 13mm
Case: 2 large slots + magnet end stops + small square hole
Pinion end: two threaded holes, 4 small slots
Pinion end bearing holder: 13mm
Found in: 58143 Mondeo BTCC, 58183 Volvo 850 BTCC


Johnson metal endbell "C"
Black metal endbell, large "natural" nylon terminal holders
Highly polished, silver (zinc?) passivated
Endbell bearing holder: 13mm
Case: 4 very small slots + magnet end stops + small square hole, serial #? marked in ink
Pinion end: two threaded holes, 4 small slots
Pinion end bearing holder: 13mm
Found in: unknown

Johnson metal endbell "D"

Black metal endbell, large "natural" nylon terminal holders
silver (zinc?) passivated
Endbell bearing holder: 13mm
Case: 2 large slots + magnet end stops + small square hole, serial #? marked in ink
Pinion end: two threaded holes, 4 small slots
Pinion end bearing holder: 13mm
Found in: 58231 Wild Dagger, 58242 Wild Willy 2, 58321 Super Clod Buster






"Re-re years" black endbell Mabuchi
Black metal endbell, small black nylon terminal holders
silver (zinc?) passivated
Endbell bearing holder: 10mm
Case: 2 large slots + magnet end stops + Mabuchi RS540SH Label
Pinion end: two threaded holes, one unthreaded hole, 4 small slots
Pinion end bearing holder: 13mm
Found in: 58336 Hornet Re-re, 58384 Brat re-re









"re-re years" "silver" endbell Mabuchi
unpassivated? metal endbell, small "natural" nylon terminal holders
unpassivated?
Endbell bearing holder: 10mm
Case: 2 large slots + magnet end stops + Mabuchi RS540SH laser? etched
Pinion end: two threaded holes, one unthreaded hole, 4 small slots
Pinion end bearing holder: 13mm
Found in: 58354 Frog Re-re

the TYPE1 you show is definately the same motor that came with my hopper. looks exactly the same

Er, so what conclusion do we draw from this? I suspect Tamiya won't have stuck to using 1 specific motor type per kit type, & motor types are only loosely age-related. I would have thought a big company like Tamiya would have bought bulk batches of motors at the cheapest price they could at the time (Possibly 3 or more different batches /year?). Until noow, as far as I was aware, it was only ever Mardave that supplied the white endbell type, & back in the 80's, if I bought a replacement 540, that's what I'd be supplied with. My new '84 hopper had a 4-slot black motor, as did my new wild one & hotshot. My celica had a 2-slot black, my cheetah a 4-slot black & I think my quattro has a 2-slot in in, as have my hilux & rough rider.

eddrick wrote:

Er, so what conclusion do we draw from this? I suspect Tamiya won't have stuck to using 1 specific motor type per kit type, & motor types are only loosely age-related. ...

I agree - but even loose "rules" throw up some car/motor combinations that are obviously wrong - my mk.2 Scorcher has a black metal endbell Johnson in it, for example ... if it didn't have a load of re-re parts on it already I'd swap it for an "early" black endbell mabuchi

Oh yeah, I agree, use the bits that are likely to have been supplied with the original, but I don't think you can specify "An '84 'hopper should have a black 4-slot mabuchi" etc unless you know what day of what month the kit was packaged & have access to Tamiya's record of what was in their parts bins on that day... I still haven't got used to the Johnson metal end motors, they look chinese to me, & in my opinion, the later cars they were fitted to are dull toys rather than interesting collector's pieces, if you get me - I know I'm wrong, but I personally don't think hoppers, hotshots, monster beetles etc are old or interesting enough to be collectible, & still consider them "new"! (Showing my age...)

found another interesting thread about the silvercans on TC

Louisbaby did some very interesting experiments with the silvercan.
It gave some extreme revs and torque but with quite the disastrous effect.
He sent me the coolest video of it a while back - I'll see if I can find it...

Here's a variation...



That's what happens when you push it over 20.000 revs.

That was quite funny at the time, But the poor motor is no more... We did get one of the motors to rev up to 19000 rpm consistently by shifting the magnets slightly forward in the casing. But my opinion is just to get a RS540SH or Johnson "4 hole" as I call it.

Gotta say the laughter in the video is pretty contagious.