Wrong pinion gear out of the box.

I just bought a new Ruckus (2wd, lipo version) and after one week the motor burned up. Horizon is sending me a new motor for free (thank you!) but I just took out the old motor and found that my pinion gear is a 17t. It's supposed to be a 19t according to their website. I wonder if that contributed to the early demise of my motor? I could tell right away that it was smaller because my other 2wd Ruckus has a 19t.

The smaller pinion could have been a factor. There is some old wisdom that if the motor gets hot but the ESC is cool, you're undergeared.

Do you have an IR temp gauge? I got one for around $13 (Turnigy).

That makes sense. The motor was super hot but the esc wasn't. I need to get a temp gun. Thanks for the info!

Check and make sure the screws on the transmission case aren't to tight. spin the gears by hand and make sure there is no binding. Just disengage the pinion and spin the spur by hand. it should spin freely with no binding.

Thanks. It does. I'm new at this so I think I just ran it too hard. Lesson learned. I'm going to put a 19 in it and watch the temps this time. Thankfully Horizon is replacing it.