Where is a 'GOOD' video (and/or drawing) that details the replacement of the spring in a Peco code 100 turnout?
Using google nowdays gets you so much disinformation after suggesting only 1 or 2 videos,...and many of those are not very well done. I guess a lot of folks just want to get 'published', and they talk, and talk, and, talk without given really good instruction.I need some close-up shots to tell exactly where the spring ends reside.
Brian
My Layout Plan
Interesting new Plan Consideration
Brian, when I want to see how to do stuff, I go directly to youtube's site and do the proper syntax search. Four days ago it was how to remove the windshield wiper arm on a 2006 Corolla. I got as far as the bolt and its removal, but was afraid to break the fairing below it trying to reef it off the shaft. The search, watched a guy do it (tap the naked threaded bolt with a steel hammer about eight or ten times and it will wiggle off).
In your case:
From Peco:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TJsz1hUxMc
Making your own springs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rfZpe1LNjk
Replacing the spring on a Peco turnout is not for the timid or faint hearted.
For starters, that link provided by Selector is the official Peco link, and it is pretty good even without audio but it is a bit difficult to follow.
The first photo in Mel's reply is very helpful. It shows the Peco turnout upside down. The trick is to return the turnout to its normal position, right side up, without having the spring fall out. The challenge is to get both legs of the spring in place without having the spring go flying.
Here is what I do. I begin by placing the left leg of the spring into the hole provided in the throwbar. Then, with my left hand holding the left leg of the spring in place with a small hobby screw driver, I grasp the right leg of the spring with a pair of tweezers in my right hand and insert it in the hole provided on the underside of the tie. With the spring now held firmly in place, I insert that metal tab over the right leg of the spring and flip the turnout over so that the two legs of the metal tab can be bent back into place to complete the installation.
Rich
Alton Junction
Do Peco turnout springs actually need to be replaced? Do the springs actually lose force? I have two Peco turnouts and the springs work fine after 20+ years.
Genesee Terminal, freelanced HO in Upstate NY ...hosting Loon Bay Transit Authority, run through Amtrak and CSX Intermodal
CP/D&H, N scale, somewhere on the Canadian Shield
Canalligators Do Peco turnout springs actually need to be replaced? Do the springs actually lose force? I have two Peco turnouts and the springs work fine after 20+ years.
I suspect he took them out - most people using slow motion switch machines like Tortoise or servos take them out because with the spring, you don't get any slow motion action.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Sorry been away from the internet lately.First case is I received a used 3-way turnout that was descriped by seller as ONLY having a faulty spring situation (turns out there is more to this story!). I proceded to look it over and found the spring was still in there, just not working properly. I took that cover off of the the spring area, but could not determine what holes the spring ends are actually suppose to be in. And I assumed the 'repair' could be made from topsides?
Seems as though the spring needs to be reinstalled from the bottom side.
Second case: I'll try this later today on another of my Peco turnouts that I dropped from my outdoor work bench onto the concrete pad when rushing around prepping for a big thunderstorm....eek! (upset that spring as well)
That illustration looks very helpful Mel
Using the Peco motors, the spring needs to be there, since the Peco motors freely flop back and forth. The Atlas switch machines have cam like mechanism in them that latches the points, so the turnouts themselves have freely moving points. The same mechanish is found in the Atlas manual switch machines as well, just minus the solenooids to move them remotely.
I think it would be extremely difficult is not impossible to repalce a Peco spring from the top side. The Code 83 Peco is a bit different, where the throwbar side of the spring goes in a tiny hole on the others, on the Code 83 it's not a hole, it's a slot, so you could at least remove the spring from the top. In fact I just did so on one I had sitting on my bech. I don't know that I'd leave it that way, it seems like the spring could jam the movement - it won't fall out, it just sort of rides along the throwbar instead of being int he slot to actually hold the points. I was also able to slip it back into the slot from the top and it again works like it originally did.
rrinker I think it would be extremely difficult is not impossible to repalce a Peco spring from the top side.
I think it would be extremely difficult is not impossible to repalce a Peco spring from the top side.
"is" should have been "if" - I totally agree and that is what I was trying to say.
The Code 83 ones, you can disengage from the throwbar and put back on from the top, but I'm noot sure it would stay clear of the throwbar indefinitely if disengaged - if it catches in the wrong spot it would jam the movement. You cna do this because on the Code 83 throwbar it's not a hole open from the bottom, it's a slot.