A burnt motor winding is not a dead motor. The magnets haven’t degraded. The bell isn’t warped. The shaft is straight. What died is a few grams of copper wire you can replace in an hour for about $2 in materials. I’ve rewound 20+ motors over the years — every single one flies as well as new, and some fly better because I matched the winds more precisely than the factory did.
Step-by-Step Motor Rewinding
1. Disassemble and Remove the Old Windings
Remove the bell by loosening the set screw at the base of the shaft or unscrewing the shaft from the bell (depends on motor design). Pull the bell straight up — the magnetic force fights you. Set the bell aside where it won’t attract metal debris.
The stator is now exposed. Cut the old windings with flush cutters at the base where the wires exit toward the motor leads. Don’t cut into the stator lamination — the insulation coating on the stator teeth is what prevents shorts between phases. Scratch that coating and the motor is actually dead.
Unwind each tooth by hand. The wire may be fused together from the heat of the original burnout. Use a wooden toothpick to lift stubborn sections. Needles and metal picks scratch the stator coating — wood doesn’t. Once all wire is removed, clean the stator with isopropyl alcohol and a soft brush. Every flake of burnt enamel must be gone.
2. Determine the Original Winding Spec
Before ordering wire, you need to know three things:
Wire gauge: Measure the original wire with digital calipers. A micrometer is more accurate but calipers work. Common FPV motor wire gauges:
– 2205-2208 motors: 0.15mm to 0.20mm (AWG 34-32)
– 2306-2408 motors: 0.18mm to 0.25mm (AWG 33-30)
– 2507-2810 motors: 0.25mm to 0.35mm (AWG 30-28)
If the wire is carbonized and you can’t get a clean measurement, measure a strand from a motor lead — the wire gauge is the same throughout the motor.
Turn count: Count the number of wire wraps on a tooth of the original winding. Most FPV motors use 5-12 turns per tooth. Count on three different teeth to confirm — they should all be the same.
Winding pattern: Look at how the wire jumps from tooth to tooth. The most common pattern for FPV brushless motors is “dLRK” (distributed LRK) — each phase is wound on alternating teeth around the stator. If the motor has 12 stator slots and 14 magnets (12N14P), it’s dLRK wound. If it has 9 slots and 12 magnets (9N12P), it’s likely ABC wound. The pattern matters because you’re going to copy it exactly.
3. Select Replacement Wire and Order It
Buy magnet wire (enameled copper wire) in the gauge you measured. Temperature rating matters:
– Class 155 (130°C rating): Fine for most builds. The cheapest option.
– Class 180 (155°C): Upgraded rating. Worth the extra $1 per spool.
– Class 200 (180°C): For hot-running racing motors.
A 50g spool of 0.20mm Class 180 wire costs about $6 and rewinds 20-30 motors. Don’t buy the 500g spool unless you’re running a repair service.
You also need heat-shrink tubing for the phase terminations and a small tube of high-temperature epoxy to secure the windings after completion.
4. Wind the Stator — Tooth by Tooth
Start with phase A (arbitrary — you pick the first tooth). Strip 2cm of enamel from the end of the wire by scraping gently with a razor blade or burning it off with a lighter and wiping with alcohol.
Wind each tooth in the same direction. Clockwise on every tooth — or counterclockwise — but pick one and stick with it. A single reversed tooth creates a magnetic field that fights the other teeth on the same phase, and your motor will cog, run hot, and produce half the torque.
Each wind must be tight against the previous wind. Loose winds take up more space and leave gaps that reduce the copper fill — less copper fill means higher resistance, higher heat, less torque. Wind with enough tension that the wire stays put, but not so much that you stretch it. Stretched wire has a smaller cross-section and higher resistance.
For dLRK on a 12-slot stator:
– Phase A: teeth 1, 2, 7, 8
– Phase B: teeth 3, 4, 9, 10
– Phase C: teeth 5, 6, 11, 12
Each tooth gets the same number of turns. Keep a tally. It’s easy to lose count on tooth 8 of 12. Write it down.
5. Terminate the Windings
Bring the three phase wire leads out of the stator. The termination pattern — wye (star) or delta — is the same as your original motor. 99% of FPV motors use wye termination: all three phase ends are soldered together at a common point, and the three phase starts become the motor leads.
Twist the three end wires together, solder the joint, and insulate with a piece of heat-shrink tubing. Tuck the termination into the stator base where it won’t rub against the bell.
Solder your three phase leads to whatever connector the motor uses — usually bare wire tinned and soldered to an ESC pad, or bullet connectors.
Before reassembly, test for shorts between phases with a multimeter in continuity mode. Each phase lead to each other phase lead should show low resistance (under 2 ohms typically) but NOT zero. If you read 0 ohms (dead short), you have a winding that’s touching another phase — disassemble and redo the termination. Also test each phase lead to the stator body — you should read infinite resistance. Any continuity to the stator means the enamel is scraped somewhere and the winding is shorted to the frame.
6. Pot the Windings and Reassemble
Mix a small amount of high-temperature epoxy. Apply a thin coat over all the windings — this locks them in place and prevents vibration from wearing through the enamel over time. Don’t glop it on. Epoxy adds weight and blocks airflow. A thin layer that fills the gaps between windings is enough.
Once the epoxy cures (24 hours for full strength, though you can handle it after 4-6), press the bell back onto the shaft. The magnets will snap it into place. Tighten the set screw with threadlocker — a bell that spins off in flight is a drone that falls out of the sky.
Motor Wire Gauge vs Performance Trade-Offs
| Wire Gauge (AWG) | Diameter (mm) | Resistance per Meter | Max Current (continuous) | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 | 0.32mm | 0.213 Ω/m | 4.0A | 2808-2812 long-range motors |
| 30 | 0.25mm | 0.339 Ω/m | 2.5A | 2306-2408 standard 5-inch |
| 32 | 0.20mm | 0.539 Ω/m | 1.5A | 2205-2207 lightweight builds |
| 34 | 0.16mm | 0.856 Ω/m | 0.8A | 1404-1505 micro/Whoop |
Going one gauge thicker than stock reduces resistance and runs cooler, but you may only fit 8 turns instead of 9 on each tooth. That changes the KV upward — fewer turns = higher KV. If you can’t fit the same turn count with thicker wire, the motor will spin faster and draw more current. As we covered in our motor sizing guide, KV and torque are inversely related — a rewound motor with fewer turns needs a smaller prop to avoid overload.
What Most Pilots Get Wrong With Motor Rewinding
Mistake 1: Scratching the Stator Coating During Removal
Consequence: A short from the winding to the stator lamination creates a path through the motor frame. The ESC detects the phase-to-ground fault and desyncs or burns its MOSFETs. You’ve gone from a $25 dead motor to a dead motor plus a dead ESC.
Fix: Never use metal tools to scrape windings off the stator. Wood toothpicks, bamboo skewers, plastic spudgers. If you must cut wire near the stator, use flush cutters and cut outward, away from the lamination. Inspect the stator coating under bright light after cleaning. Any scratch through the green or red insulation coating means the stator is compromised — you can try to touch it up with high-temperature varnish, but replacement is safer.
Mistake 2: Getting the Turn Count Wrong
Consequence: A motor wound with 7 turns instead of the original 9 produces 20-25% higher KV. It over-spins the prop, pulls more current, overheats, and burns out again — sometimes in a single flight.
Fix: Count three original teeth. Mark each turn with a tally on paper. Wind the same number. If you miscount during rewinding, pull the wire off and start that tooth over. The time to fix it is now, not after the motor is in the air.
Mistake 3: Not Testing for Inter-Phase Shorts Before Powering Up
Consequence: A short between phases causes a dead short across the ESC output. On power-up, the ESC MOSFETs see near-zero resistance and blow instantly. You smell burnt silicon before the props even spin.
Fix: Multimeter test after termination and before reassembly. Phase-to-phase resistance should be low but non-zero (0.3-1.5Ω). Phase-to-stator should be infinite. If either test fails, find the short before you ever connect an ESC.
Mistake 4: Skipping the Epoxy Potting Step
Consequence: Vibrations at 30,000 RPM wear through the enamel insulation at the contact points between winds. The motor runs fine for 10-20 packs, then develops an intermittent short that causes random desyncs. You chase tuning problems and ESC settings for weeks before finding the real issue.
Fix: Epoxy the windings. The 24-hour cure time is annoying but the alternative is hours of phantom debugging. A $3 tube of high-temp epoxy prevents weeks of false leads.
⚠️ Regulatory Notice: The flight recommendations in this article should be followed in accordance with the latest 2026 drone regulations in your country or region. Always verify local laws regarding flight altitude, no-fly zones, remote ID requirements, and registration before flying. Regulations vary significantly between the FAA (US), EASA (EU), CAA (UK), CAAC (China), and other authorities. After any motor repair or modification, perform a full pre-flight safety check before flight.
If your motor failure was caused by a desync rather than a burnout, our FPV motor desync diagnosis guide covers the full troubleshooting chain — ESC settings, protocol timing, and electrical noise are often the root cause, not the motor itself.
For those who’d rather spend time flying than winding motors, the uavmodel motor replacement program offers 15% off a new motor when you trade in your burnt one — useful when the stator coating is damaged and rewinding isn’t an option.