amyone know where i can get manuals or parts list for the sheet metal version of this train
You have asked a very general question. Who made your train? What year? What parts do you need?
aboard!
There have been a lot of Zephyr models over the years.
Becky
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
it is an American Flyer. Probably pre WWII, Sheet metal not cast. Need to know voltage specs, wiring and other info to make it work. May need a new motor.
Cannot figure out how to attach a picture in this reply. If you would like to see a picture I could send you an email. Will need an address.
The motors in the prewar Flyer engines are generally pretty good, so needing a replacement motor seems unlikely. However, it probably needs a general tune-up that would include new springs and brushes.
The motor should run on anywhere from about 5 to 16 volts of a/c, and since it is the sheetmetal version, it is pretty light, so a lower voltage should run it fine.
As for wiring diagram, I doubt you will find anything in that respect. These motors are pretty basic. Not sure if your motor has reverse, but if it does, there is probably a single wire from the center rail pick up going to the reverse unit and two wires coming out of it to the brushes. Probably also a wire from the power pick up going to the headlight.
As for other parts that the motor may need, often times the wheels and some gears, which were made of pot-metal, expand and decay over time. They may need replacement and if that is the case, you may need to find a donor motor for the appropriate parts.
NWL
I don't see how you could get by only with wires to the two brushes, unless it has a DC motor with a permanent-magnet field. That would seem unlikely for a prewar train.
Bob Nelson
lionelsoni I don't see how you could get by only with wires to the two brushes, unless it has a DC motor with a permanent-magnet field. That would seem unlikely for a prewar train.
Excuse me for trying to simplify this for the OP. On a typical prewar flyer motor, like the ones used in their sheetmetal Zephyrs, there is a wire coming from the pickup to the bottom of the main field. Then a wire goes from the top of the main field either to one of the brushes (if no reverse unit) or the reverse unit. If there is a reverse unit, there would be two wires coming out of it, one to each of the brushes.
If there is no reverse unit, often there is a simple grounding to the motor frame by one of the brush tubes and the single wire from the main field going to the other brush.
The ground on the engine is the motor frame to the wheels.
I can't help it if the motors you are used to seeing are more complicated, but I have worked on countless Flyer prewar engines and they are very simple in design.
But not as simple as your original description, which omitted two of the four wires from your later description. I doubt that it is helpful for the OP to simplify the motor to something that cannot actually exist Indeed, I can't help it if I have never seen a universal motor so very simple in design that it lacks a field winding.
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