I have recently been developing a motor replacement for our beloved MTL F-7. This mod includes Maxon 8-mm motor and brass flywheels. In addition to improved performance this mod eliminates the offset gear drive and the main source of the noise associated with the MTL F-7. To accommodate the 8-mm motor a small portion of the frame must be milled. An added benefit is that there is space left over in the motor compartment for electronics (decoder). Although I do not have DCC experience in Z I believe the space to be ample. I have been running the heck out of the prototype and have found it to be comparable in speed/ voltage to MTL and AZL diesels. A single loco has been pulling 7-8 AZL heavy weights up 4% grades (quietly). The attached photo is of the original design, some changes have been made since that photo was taken to simplify manufacture but it is basically the same. The Zelatory
This is a great idea! How much? As MTL and AZL have stated that the cost of Swiss motors has made them cost prohibitive, I am curious how much this will add to the cost of the engine. Have you put any thought into using that $10 7mm Rokuhan motor as a low cost alternative? MTL should have done this years ago!
it has been a year now since this post what is happening, I am ready to get some chassis milled out and start to remotor a few of my older models
Hi Loren and garth i have been working on a maxon motor kit 2 i will share the 3d printer drawing, if anyone can help i would like to know more about the rokuhan a100-2 motor tom
Not sure what the status of this project is, but I started working on my own conversion kit for MTL F7 to Rokuhan motor. Ordered first print from shapeways. We'll see how it turns out For now a picture of design:
the one issue with remotoring is being able to know that the motor will not be overloaded by the excessive friction of the MTL trucks. So knowing what the torque of the MTL (even märklin) compared to the Maxon and Rokuhan. The Rokuhan can motor is small and drives a very free moving truck. I am afraid that there will be a lot of friction load which will overheat the motor.
Good point. But I don't have any maxon motors to repower my F7 with and rokuhan ones are easily available...
I understand an agree with all the concerns brought up. But I'm all for brute force and ignorance when it comes to things like this. If the Rokuhan motor has a melt down first time around the track, chalk it up to a $16 experiment gone bad. $16 dollars in z scale world is pretty darn cheap when you think about it. And if it does work and works well, that would be great for these MTL locomotives and for everybody who owns them (which is pretty much everybody). Maxon motor would be an expensive experiment gone bad. There I would not apply Brute force and ignorance.
I'd be all for a retrofit on my M-T growlers! That would be great! The only other F-units are AZL's F3's, and they are priced outta' my range for an AB set, plus no Milwaukee Road like my 5 I own! Bravo on the R&D for this.
Ha, it's more of a D part right now. The R part will happen when the printouts arrive and I can see whether it works or needs to be sent back to the drawing board :-D
There is an option to copy a short version of Geep chassis in which the new motor in sd40-2's would work and then you avoid quirky power pick up in F chassis, look at chassis designed for SW1200 that uses components from Rokuhan shorty.