Armature Rewinding

[ben10ben]

Keith,
I intend to pass the bad armature along with the rest of the motor that I didn't use back along to the shop owner. I figure that it's the least I can do, since he gave it to me in the first place. I definitely wouldn't consider throwing it away, though. Something like that is way too good to throw away.

[1688torpedo]

Sounds like you made out well Ben! However, Never throw out the Bad Armature as it still can be saved & perhaps used for a future purchase. You Just never know. Take Care.

[ben10ben]

Thanks again to you all for your help.

I only got one response to my various inquiries about motor rewinding with a price of $40, which was more than I felt like I wanted to spend on the engine. It sat unassembled on my desk for a while, but I happened to think of it while in my local shop the other day.

I asked if he would by chance have an armature, and he went back into the back room and dug out a cruddy looking 1656 motor which he gave me. I went home, pulled the armature out, cleaned it up, installed in my 229, and it ran great! So I now have a wonderfully running 229 with absolutely nothing invested in motor repair. I spend quite a bit of money every year at this particular shop, so I guess that this goes to show that it pays to support your local guys.

[ben10ben]

Thanks to everyone for the advice. I've fired off a few e-mails, and am awaiting responses.

I had already unsoldered what I believed to be the faulty wire, so I soldered it back on. I poked around a little, and I found a stray blob of solder at the end of a wire that I had missed before. When probed, it showed continuity to the two segments that I know to be good, and no continuity to the one that has been giving me problems. By the way, one segment is totally dead, showing no continuity to either of the other two.

I'm assuming that this little stray wire should be the culprit, but I have no idea where it should be attached. I have some assorted magnet wire lying around here, so I could probably solder in a jumper.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[SPFan]

As some others have noted the break is most likely at or near the commutator connection. The windings are installed one at a time with the 1st one being slightly overlapped by the 2nd and 3rd and the 2nd overlapped by the 3rd so your ability to remove just one will be determined by where it fell in the winding sequence. Its not that hard to do. As mentioned you just have to count the turns and replace it with the same gauge wire. Slot car hot rodders did this all the time in the '60s before hot motors were commercially available.

Pete

[lionelsoni]

It just occurred to me that each commutator segment is connected to two windings, so one open winding would still leave some continuity among the segments. You may have allowed for this and are inferring that one winding is open because you read twice the resistance on one pair of segments compared to the other two pairs, which would be the symptom of a single open winding. However, if you found one segment completely open, that would mean that two windings are open or, more likely, that the segment had become disconnected from the windings. The latter might be much easier to repair, as Dennis suggests.

[Anonymous]

You minght want to double check the solder joints before you go to far, even if they look good one could be faulty. take a hot iron and go over them and then check for opens again.

[Anonymous]

You might want to check with Sandy's Hobby Shop on Long Island. They do this kind of work.[C):-)]

[1688torpedo]

Hello Ben! Joseph l. Mania Does re-winding of Armatures and has a website.Just type in his name,Get his phone# and let him know what you need.There is also another fellow with the nickname"The Motor Doctor" who also does rewinds and has a website.Good Luck.

[spankybird]

On most small motors the winding were done off the stator and inserted on to the stator what is called coil insertion.

You would have to have the same diameter of wire, it has to be wound in the same direction, it has to have the same number of turns, and the end coils have to be the same size to have it perform correctly. Needles to say, this is very tuff to do on a small motor.

It is mostly likely more cost effective to replace the stator asbly with a new one.

tom

[nitroboy]

Robert Hannon has the equipment and know-how to do it. 410-531-3110.

[trigtrax]

You can rewind just the damaged coil of an armature. The coils are soldered to the tabs under the commutator plate. The replacement coil must be wound in the same direction with the same gauge wire as the coil you remove. It's doubtful that the person you send this to will have the machinery to rewind this type of motor and he will rewind it by hand.

[ben10ben]

I picked up a prewar 229 the other day for next to nothing($23) off of a train show table that was selling engines by the pound. I grabbed this one because it appeared to be the most complete, and I had been wanting a decent prewar engine.

Anyway, after ordering new brushes, brush springs, and an e-unit drum, I discover a problem that probably placed it on the junk table in the first place. I could only get the motor to run with a push start, and then only very slowly and with a lot of arcing on the brushes. A few minutes with my multimeter revealed an open winding in the armature, which also has all of the symptoms described above.

I've tried to do some of my own winding before, with very bad results, so I would prefer to turn this over to a pro with the proper machinery. First of all, about how much would I be looking at for a rewinding job, and would it be worth it? Second, can just the one coil be rewound, or would all three of them need to be done? Third, and finally, to whom would you all suggest that I send it?

Thanks in advance,
Ben