so first thing I did was skim the forum looking for any related issues and found no related issues.
I have had mine for a few years but never tried it. Over the weekend, I finally got power to it. It went up, then down(it has a toggle switch in line) . Started up a second time. And the mnotor started to bog down and slow. Then it stopped. All it did after that was buzz. I pulled it off the layout for a closer look. The grease was rock hard. It needed a complete cleaning. Completely cleaned now with fresh grease. a new test.
It went one full cycle. Started a second and stopped and just buzzed again. It was also extremely hot. Took it back to the workbench where I have better light to work on it. I have a MRC Tech II 2500(remember those) sitting on the bench. Not only did the motor start to turn, it did so much cooler and didnt stop after only 2 cycles. I left it run to see if i could spot the culprit causing it to stop. After about 12 cycles it did bog down and stop, but wasnt any where near as hot.
Any idea why it just bogs and stops? I know it needs new brushes. Is there another reason, like maybe years of running so hot made the insulation on the magnet wire go bad?
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
Update
since the weather has me stuck at home i decided to tinker with it some. Since it had the night to cool, I gave it a shot. It just buzzed. little puffs of white smoke, and the collecters got extremely hot within a few seconds of power being applied. My assumption. The motor windings are toast. Or more likely the insulating coating is done. The motor isnt a total loss. I will use it to learn how to do rewindings. Searching for a replacement now.
Ouch, yea sounds like a toasted motor. Interesting that 1 cycle works but another doesn't. I have the modern bascule and it worked great but thats all solid state electronics. The PW version is old school. I seem to remember it uses a spring to help raise it in leu of a counterweight. I'm wondering if the old spring is missing or broken. The motor gives it everything its got for the first cycle but overheats and gives out after that. Poke around on the internet for a parts diagram. There should be a spring in the left tower.
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[quote user="BigAl 956"]
The spring is there and properly tensioned. I found it odd that it ran for many cycles under dc before stopping. But only one cycle under ac before stopping.
A universal motor that runs better on DC than AC may have shorted turns in the field winding. On DC the short circuit just takes those turns out of action, which may be a tolerable fraction of the total, with no side effects. But on AC, the shorted turns act like the secondary winding of a transformer and seriously degrade the magnetic field.
Bob Nelson
Checking it with a meter finds two of the three fields are done. " New" motor on the way. Along with new brushes. Good one to learn how to rewind an armature
With the install of the replacement motor. Runs faster now now to get the light working
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