If you have a dead or ailing Atlas/Rivarossi 4-6-2, 2-8-2, 0-8-0, or 0-4-0 that needs a motor, I have a solution. I have created a completely rebuilt and upgraded version of that notorious "Rivarossi Can Motor" that will drop right in as a replacement. These are significantly better than the original motor, won't melt down, and will drop right in with no engine modification needed. I replace the armature with a skew-wound 3-pole, and replace the rubber "refrigerator magnet" with a very powerful rare-earth Neodymium magnet ring that I had custom-manufactured to fit the can. I also install heavier brushes and brush springs. The intent here is to have a decent, reliable motor that can easily be dropped right back into the chassis without any modifications. Because the new motor has such a strong magnet in it, it will lift the trailing truck of the engine right up off the track, so I modify the trailing truck (on the 4-6-2 and 2-8-2), replacing the steel top strip with a brass one. I have tested these motors in the 4-6-2, 2-8-2, 0-8-0, and 0-4-0, and am offering them for sale. 1. Price $30 per motor, shipping is free within the continental United States. 2. Availability Motors are available on a first come, first serve basis. Once you pay, that will reserve your place in line. I will let you know how many motors are ahead of you when you inquire. But BE AWARE, I can't hold your place in line until I receive payment. 3. Terms: You must send me: - your old motor - the little fork coupling (4-6-2 or 2-8-2) or worm gear (for an 0-8-0 or 0-4-0) must be on it, or packed with it - your old trailing truck (4-6-2 and 2-8-2) - if you include any attached headlight contact and wire that's connected to your old motor, I'll make sure that's on the new one when I send it back. This is a hard requirement. I only have a handful of parts and motors rebuilt to sell, and there will be no steady supply of these if there isn't a "core exchange" system like this. I will send you: Rebuilt motor and modified trailing truck, after receiving payment. 4. Guarantee: If for any reason you don't like the motor, or if it does something stupid and fails on you, just send it back and you get all your money back. No excuses, no BS. You expect these to work, and so do I. My only "disclaimer" here is that I can only be responsible for the motor. If you have a jammed-up old Rivarossi or one with crumbling Zamac frame or other mechanical issues, obviously, a new motor is not going to be a "magic wand" that fixes it. 5. How to get them: Send me a direct email to spsitems@gmail.com, I will reply and then you can send payment and your old motors (and trailing trucks, forks or worms) Below are some photos showing what the modifications look like.
All, As you know I have a Quartet of ATLAS / RIVAROSSI 2-8-2 Mikado’s 2 of which were repowered with Mabuchi Motors part Number escapes me at the moment they still run to this day. Tom
Thanks! Those photos make it look simpler than it actually is. It looks like "drop the new armature and magnet into the can and there you go!" Well, the short version of the long story was: 1. Find an industrial supplier willing to manufacture a custom-sized ring magnet in relatively small quantities out of Neodymium Ferrite Boron. Learn the proper style of magnetization it would have to have. 2. Find a good-quality, low-cost, armature 3. Practice on the cans and armatures, get a process down for modifying the arm to fit properly in there (it requires machining the can in a lathe, and slightly altering the armature). It can't just "fit". The commutator has to line up under the brushes, AND (something people often don't think about), the armature has to be centered laterally within the magnet ring. 4. Put some together, assess the best armature (I tried several different ones) for power, speed range, and durability. 5. Modify the Rivarossi brush holders so they can hold the larger springs and brushes. It was a many months of experimentation, I can tell you that. I really just did it because I was utterly curious about why the original motors fail so often, and I wanted to see if it were possible to create a "drop in". After all, really skilled modelers can cut up the frame and fit in any old motor they want, including nice coreless motors with gearheads. I've done that myself. But the goal of this product was a simple way to "rescue" all those Rivarossis people have languishing in their drawer, when they don't necessarily have the time or skill to do a full frame modification job.
I just got my 3 motors from Max, and these are very sweet running motors. In my opinion, it's well worth sending them to Max, he has done an excellent job and the old Rivarossi / Atlas loco's run sweet as a nut! I'm so impressed I'm hunting out the last 3 I have so I can send them to Max. I've named the motors Super Max because they are that good! and they just fit right back in without modification.
Excellent, Max, and an extremely reasonable price!. Actually, a real bargain. When a Rivarossi steamer has a good motor in it, it becomes an excellent runner. When I get inquiries about what to do about motors in these, I will steer them your way. Super Max Motors - a terrific name. Doug
Sorry I never replied to you, Jose. I have a watch on this thread, but didn't get any notification that there was a new post. So although this is very late... The normal running free-run current on the rebuilt motor is only about 40 mA - 60 mA at 12v. (Most are somewhere in between there). I did burn tests on them when I first developed this fix to show that I could full-stall the motor for 30 seconds at 12 volts without it burning out or melting anything. The stall current at 12v is about 450 mA.
Unfortunately, if you are using a Google/Gmail address here on TrainBoard, those geniuses have us filtered out. As we have automated responses for new members, which we use to send out password verifications, their system identifies us as spammers. Which shows how poorly written their software is... We cannot do a thing about it. We are powerless to overcome such ignorance. Our inquiries and requests for mitigation go unanswered. Even I, as an administrator, am one of their victims.
Hello everyone. I just realized that this thread was still active and I have been getting a flurry of requests to do these rebuilds lately. Unfortunately, all the specially-manufactured ring magnets I had made for this project are gone. I will not be doing any more of these. So sorry I did not think to post this earlier.
