bad motor

HI the steam engine that was sent to me to fix from a train board member has a bad motor. it is down one poll. this is a roco tender drive engine. is there someone out there that might have this motor they would sell?

 

If it is a tender driven engine, you may want to try using the tender drive in the tender of an athearn/mdc old-time 2-8-0 or 2-6-0 (a GREAT running engine w/ a smooth 5-pole motor) with a modified joint in the driveshaft. you can pick up one online for as little as $60 online.

 

this is a n scale european stream line 4-6-2

 

the engine looks like this.

 

Looks like a Life Like motor from an old F7 or FA would work.

 

Here's what the tender motor from the Athearn/MDC/Roundhouse 2-6-0/2-8-0 looks like, though I dont think you can currently find them for 60s (they're quite popular and hard to find), however Athearn announced a re-run of the 2-6-0, so the price might come down in the months to come. Or you could wait it out and just order parts.

 

I found an athearn loco for about $6o (maybe $80 now) on trainworld online .com last year. used it to kitbash SD&AE #50, but that's another story...

 

Did you try to repair the motor? Roco motors often tend to loose one of the tiny coil wires and I easily repaired them by carefully resoldering the wires to the post. After that is the motor as good as new.
On the other hand should a motor from a cheap LL or Bachmann diesel fit into the tender with minor tweaking.
Regards
Mathi

 

nsn737, please PM me regarding an MDC Roundhouse motor. Thanks.

 

Except for the flywheel,that's the same exact motor I just mentioned that's in any cheap plastic frame Life Like diesel,F7,FA,GP18..

 

I have an interesting query about a locomotive motor. I have one of Bachmann's open-sided, skew-wound 5-poler with flywheels (the one that is in the Baldwin sharknose models) and it just seems to keep running hot.

I have three other locomotives with exactly the same motor that are running fine (so far...), and I can run them quite a long time with no ill effects. This particular one, however, I only have to run it a short distance, and it gets really quite hot. As far as I can tell, there is nothing visibly wrong with the motor, but I am just curious what could make it keep getting excessively hot like this.

 

I have re-motored quite a few of my locos over the years, and always carry lots of spares, but it seems that still a loco will fail very infrequently and I won't have an easy fitting replacement. So I learned to improvise and have a lot of silicone, tubing, connectors, and when I finally de-activate a loco, I tear it apart and save every part. I find each motor sort of has a personality of its own, some get hotter quicker than others, some run smooter, have their own whines and so on.

Generally, when a little motor gets warm when I put power to the leads is either very old and/or in dire need of lubrication. I also carry a ton of Labelle #108 Plastic compatible oil handy at all time. When a motor gets warm, it is usually due to friction somewhere in the moving parts. This could be where the brushes contact the commutator, or in the driveshaft where it is mounted to the motor, via bearings. This is more common. Also, if the loco is mounted in a mechanism, particularly an older one, and those gears are brass, this metal tends to stiffen and resist the power and torque of a motor, again causing heat. If the mechanism has brass gears, the oil tens to drain off, and I hit these locos (Rivarossi's, Trix's, Roco's, Arnolds) with quick spritz of oil before I run it.

I also find that locos with delrin (oil impregnated plastic) fitting and innards, tend to need lubrication less, and run cooler than another comparable loco with metal or brass gearing.

I try to keep all my spare motors lubricated as good as possible, always testing them for friction, whine, squeaking and heat before putting them in a new motor cradle.

Hope some of these tips work. You will never get rid of all of the heat, but using oil delicately put on, never put on liberally, but frequently, you can keep motors and mechanisms cooler and lasting longer. Heck I have some old Arnolds over 40 years old that run great like the day they were bought. Same with Trix's, Bachmann's, Roco's, Rivarossi's and so on. A little attention goes a very long way, plus it is fun to remove the shell and test the mechanism out.

The last little piece of information is from my hours at my workbench maintaining my spare motors. I have just about every style and make for my fleet, and find that the cooler motors are the Kato, both open and closed, and other LifeLike 5 pole motors stay coolest and run smooth in my hand, while some of the older 3 pole motors tend to run a little rougher, get very warm, tend to whine and squeak, and many do not have that reassuring "whine" at upper rpm's that I have come to expect with the better motors and aftermarket motors available.

Now all I need is a new gear puller, which is holding up a couple of steam remotor jobs.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

 

Interesting thread.

I have a Grafar 0-6-0 tank loco that runs very hot after a short time. Grafar is usually a good motor. Lubed the gears but didn't seem to help much. It is brass worm with plastic gear drive to the drivers. What is best way to lube the brushes? To get to the bearing I will have to use a small needle with a tiny drop of oil. All suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

I use the Atlas Conduct-a-lube, a single drop on each brush.
The motors tend to run smoother and quieter after getting this treatment.
YMMV.

 

For European locomotive parts try Wolfgang at Eisenbahn Clinic.

 

Thanks for all that info. I'm not sure about delrin, but I know the motor I'm working with is most likely plastic on the inside. In this case, the excessive heat I'm finding is felt through the outside of the motor casing itself, so I'm postulating, there might be some excessive friction in there somewhere.