Generic Hobby Motors for Repowering?

[richhotrain]

cedarwoodron

In my planning and prep for repowering a small diesel loco.............

Cedarwoodron

What is the small diesel loco that you are trying to repower?  Has the original motor failed or are you trying to change the performance specs?  Perhaps, you could find an identical loco on eBay and buy it for parts.

Rich

[rrinker]

 Kato brushes are non-replaceable? That's sure news to me. They come out easy enough..hehe I have a dead motor because one of the brush springs took a trip to the floor and even drastic measures could not locate it. I've even repaired a Kato motor that had too much goop on the commutator, blocking one of the segments.

 As far as generic remotoring - I honestly do not think it is necessary unless you have some really old locos with motors that either do not allow the brushes to be isolated (in case you are installign DCC), or just draw way too much current by modern standards. Nearly anything in the past 15-20 years has a decent motor that will run fun and not draw too much current. There may be quality control issues, or the motor may simply need tuning up (the tips for Athearn motors can help others as well). While it might be nice if every one of my locos had one of those superb Canon motors tha tmy Stewart Baldwin switchers have, my Proto locos runs just fine and creep along nicely at count-the-tie speeds with their stock motors. All the Atlas locos I own are all the older ones with Kato motors, those run great as well. I've seen some newer ones run - I would see no reason to remotor those, either. FOr defective motors, there are parts available for most anythign of recent manufacture, and the bonus is replacement with another OEM motor means it will just drop into palce, no reworkign to fit a different size motor, or wone with different size shafts, or different mounting methods.

                   --Randy

[cedarwoodron]

First, it is an old AHM/Mechano made in the early 1980s- so I value it as an "antique", per se. Second, it presently runs around the track at warp factor 10, due to the present gearing ratios. Third, I have a loco servicing and freight yard, so things should move a bit slower, in my opinion. Fourth- and perhaps, seriously, the most important, by doing this simpler project, I am learning a great deal at minimal cost, for use in future work on swap meet specials I have collected. I have seen a number of small 12VDC motors with various rpms and some are single shaft, as I need. Thanks for the advice. Cedarwoodron

[maxman]

fwright

The Kato replacement motors are also reported to be very good.

  

I'm not so sure about this.  A friend of mine has purchased a bunch of Kato motors, but he has done this to replace other Kato motors that have failed.  He says that he has to buy the replacements because the brushes on the Kato motors wear out and the motor construction makes the brushes non-replaceable.

[fwright]

cedarwoodron

In my planning and prep for repowering a small diesel loco, I have been researching both A-Line and NWSL options, as well as their prices. I then remembered that there are electronics surplus/discount websites,looked at a few and found there were many small motors available at low prices. This got me to "thinking frugally", as I am always on a limited hobby budget. Has anyone purchased such "hobby motors" from these alternate sources and used them (in conjunction with model railroad-specific other parts such as gears/gearboxes/flywheels from NWSL/A-Line/etc) to repower their HO locos less expensively? Cedarwoodron

Why are you remotoring/regearing?  What are your priority goals for the project - another words, what are trying to fix?  Do you need slower/smoother switching speeds?  Reduced current draw?  Ease of installation?  Lower or higher top speed?  Quieter operation?  More torque?  Why do you need to both regear and remotor? 

Surplus and hobby motors range all over the spectrum in quality and characteristics.  So naturally the "success" of remotoring using surplus motors is going to vary, too.  But success has to be measured against your goals for the remotor effort.

When you go the surplus route, you are adapting the installation to the motor instead of ordering the motor to best fit the situation.  Spec sheets on surplus motors - sometimes hard to come by - can help a lot in determining how much extra work that good-deal motor is going to be.  Sometimes you get lucky, and the surplus motor is no more trouble than a specific NWSL motor.  That's where the saying, "better to be lucky than good" applies.

Cheap (whether surplus or not) motors often have the following short comings for model locomotive use:

• torque is too low at low voltage.  Result is a burned up motor when trying to haul longer trains.
• too high a minimum RPM.  Makes achieving very low speed operation and a satisfactory top speed very difficult.
• too high a 12 volt RPM.  Results in extra noise for the higher gear reduction, and extra space for the gears.
• non-linear response at mid-range; tend towards stop or full speed
• very small diameter shafts and weak bearings.  Requires isolation of the flywheel (if used) by universals, and bushing of shafts.

But only you can evaluate whether a given motor is "good enough", and how high a price you are willing to pay for excellent motors.

Some folks have reported very good success with some surplus Canon motors.  The Kato replacement motors are also reported to be very good.  Surplus CD-ROM drive motors have been used successfully.  Small 24V motors, though they tend to be quite expensive, often have great RPM ranges and noise levels for our purposes when operated at 12 volts or less.  Roundbell's HOn3 remotor kits (quite pricey) use very small 24V coreless motors for great performance.

I recommend you think through your goals for your remotor, and decide what motor characteristics are required to meet those goals.  If a surplus or hobby motor meets the need (not everybody needs/wants 5 ties per hour slow speed), then why not save the $$.  But if the hobby motor isn't going to acheive the result you want, then that is time and money thrown away on an unsat result.

my thoughts, your choices

Fred W

[cacole]

I agree with what richg1998 says about needing a double-shaft motor for a diesel locomotive. 

Another big problem I foresee is finding flywheels that would fit the shaft on a surplus motor. 

All Electroniucs has three pages of surplus motors in their catalog, but not a single one is double-shaft.

[richg1998]

For diesels, think double shaft motors. Single ended are much more available. I have seen many surplus motors but most seem to be single shaft motors.

 

Rich

[cedarwoodron]

In my planning and prep for repowering a small diesel loco, I have been researching both A-Line and NWSL options, as well as their prices. I then remembered that there are electronics surplus/discount websites,looked at a few and found there were many small motors available at low prices. This got me to "thinking frugally", as I am always on a limited hobby budget. Has anyone purchased such "hobby motors" from these alternate sources and used them (in conjunction with model railroad-specific other parts such as gears/gearboxes/flywheels from NWSL/A-Line/etc) to repower their HO locos less expensively? Cedarwoodron