Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Dewalt). This thread is read-only.
I’m not having any issues. But I was wondering, how do you know when your drill (or other power tool) is in need of a new set of motor brushes? When it looses power or starts to smoke or stops working?
Well, I have never ever had this problem but my guess is that it will proberly be the same problem with a damaged cord. Sometimes it works nice and then it starts to stop and then after some shaking of the tool it starts to work again. When the brushes is near their life time the presure on the comutator will be very little and the motor will start to stop and go irregurly.
It is very easy to inspect the brushes, just take the clamshell apart and have a visuel look at the brushes. If there is very little left, change them to a new pair. There might be some small dot or mark that shows how much that much be left of the brushes, like the oil level stick on a petrol engine. I took apart a makita drill some week ago and on that tool there was a mark that showed how much brush that must be left, do not remember if this is the case on the Dewalt tools.
in all my years, i’ve never had to replace brushes on a motor. usually they last the life of the tool.