I recieved an email from Philippe Borges who is a EVDL list member.  He lives across the pond in France and was being asked about some extreem commutator arcing and brush wear.  He sent over a picture of both comm and brush asking if I could shed some light.  Well they say a picture tells a tousand words but they don’t always tell you a story.  What I saw in this picture is what looked like a stall mark, being the comm wasn’t arcing all around the comm.  These sections aren’t scarred though like a stall mark is and the pits are perfect open circuit signs.  The solder joint looked solid and there wasn’t any signs of a dark burn mark in the banding which will occur if a winding opens.

He also sent a pic of the brush, but stated that only two look like this while the other two look great.  My suspision was that the motorwas stalled at one point and the armature heated and spit the solder out of one or more of the winding to riser connections.  I asked if he could send some more pics and stated the above to him.  Well it just so happened that he had a few pics of different commutator positions, in fact 11 8^ )  On picture number 5 I saw what I wanted to see, well not what I wanted but the problem that was causing the arcing and brush wear.  It’s a perfect shot of a cold solder where the solder has been spit out, probable cause is a stalled motor.  I asked Philleppe if I could post these pics to show you all a stalled, open connection.  Believe it or not this armature should still be able to be turned and put back into service.  It is best to try and catch this early before it developes into something this sever.  Most armature here in the states are tig welded but for those who might still have soldered joints to never hold yourself still on a hill with the motor.  Goes for you welded guys to for that matter.  Anyway I had some fun playing long distance motor doctor and I though some of you might like to have a look.