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Failing(?) motor in Walthers / LifeLike Subway car

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  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
  • 21,483 posts
Posted by MisterBeasley on Tuesday, March 8, 2016 12:09 PM

I took the easier course of action and ordered 2 more motor units from Walthers.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

  • Member since
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  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
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Posted by MisterBeasley on Thursday, March 3, 2016 4:02 PM

Decisions, decisions.  I could get the NWSL motor.  Walthers actually does carry the replacement motor, including all the linkage and stuff, for about the same price.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: North Dakota
  • 9,592 posts
Posted by BroadwayLion on Monday, February 29, 2016 9:55 AM

DigitalGriffin

 

 

 
BroadwayLion
I am in the middle of replacing all of the motors with NWSL 2032D-9

 



From the page

 

 

 
NWSL

1.75 Stall amps

 

 


YIPES I hope that is a typo!

 

 

Is good thing that Regulated power supply of LION kicks out 12 AMPS!

Of course, the object is not to stall the locomotives (or subway cars)

ROAR

The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.

Here there be cats.                                LIONS with CAMERAS

  • Member since
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  • From: Pa.
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Posted by DigitalGriffin on Monday, February 29, 2016 9:44 AM

BroadwayLion
I am in the middle of replacing all of the motors with NWSL 2032D-9



From the page

NWSL

1.75 Stall amps


YIPES I hope that is a typo!

Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions

Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Pa.
  • 3,361 posts
Posted by DigitalGriffin on Monday, February 29, 2016 9:41 AM

rrinker

 Sounds like a burned winding - or maybe there is too much gunk (worn brush material, which is conductive) built up in the slots of the commutator.

                --Randy

 



+1.  If you can get the motor apart and clean the commutator you are in good shape.  If not it might be a good time for a new motor.

Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions

Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: North Dakota
  • 9,592 posts
Posted by BroadwayLion on Sunday, February 28, 2016 5:24 PM

For the motor it is a 1 to 1 swap out. The couplings are intergal to the fly wheels. You will be removing the fly wheels to put them onto the new motor, and so will use the same linkage. I did use a gear puller to pul the flywheels, I fabricated a washer so the the puller (way too big) could get behind the fly wheel. (I cut a slot in a fender washer.) But on the last one I did, I found I could pull the flywheels off manually. I used a vice to apply pressure to place the flywheels on a new motor. I but washers between the flywheels and the vice jaws since some of the delicate plastic extends beyond the edge of the flywheel.

One flywheel will be in the correct place before the other. Yse a nut or something to stop the movement of that wheel while applying pressure to the other.

LION has long since ditched the grey plastic insert, it may need some modification if you cannot seat it back exactly as it was.

1) Open Car

2) Remove green circuit board

3) Remove covers to trucks and remove the worm and linkage

4) unscrew and remove the gray part

5) Pull the motor straight up, it is only rubber things that hold it in place.

6) note the orientation of the morot and the flywheels

7) There is a red dot on the new motor casing next to the positive terminal, the negative terminal is not marked. Negative on the left, positive on the right train goes forward.

ROAR

The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.

Here there be cats.                                LIONS with CAMERAS

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
  • 21,483 posts
Posted by MisterBeasley on Sunday, February 28, 2016 10:58 AM

BroadwayLion
I am in the middle of replacing all of the motors with NWSL 2032D-9 which fits right in

Do I need to order any additional stuff like couplings, or is it a 1-for-1 replacement?  Thanks.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
  • 21,483 posts
Posted by MisterBeasley on Sunday, February 28, 2016 9:52 AM

Thank you, Lion.  You are the cat's meow.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: North Dakota
  • 9,592 posts
Posted by BroadwayLion on Saturday, February 27, 2016 8:59 PM

LION uses many of these cars,a dn some of the newest ones were really bad. I am in the middle of replacing all of the motors with NWSL 2032D-9 which fits right in and gives 1000% better performance. Even a brand new unit was replaced already.

ROAR

The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.

Here there be cats.                                LIONS with CAMERAS

  • Member since
    January 2003
  • From: US
  • 112 posts
Posted by rbturner on Saturday, February 27, 2016 7:26 PM
A dead spot like this is frequently caused by one of the armature windings breaking off of one of the commutator segments. These problems are fairly easy to fix in HO scale but are pretty tuff in N.
Randy
  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Reading, PA
  • 30,002 posts
Posted by rrinker on Saturday, February 27, 2016 7:18 PM

 Sounds like a burned winding - or maybe there is too much gunk (worn brush material, which is conductive) built up in the slots of the commutator.

                --Randy


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Collinwood, Ohio, USA
  • 16,367 posts
Posted by gmpullman on Saturday, February 27, 2016 5:33 PM

Sounds just like what I went through with a couple of older Stewart F units I had with Büler motors.

I tried cleaning the brushes and commutator but that didn't help.

I don't have a L-L subway car but I bet I know who does...

Roar.

Maybe he will chime in.

Good Luck, Ed

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
  • 21,483 posts
Failing(?) motor in Walthers / LifeLike Subway car
Posted by MisterBeasley on Saturday, February 27, 2016 4:09 PM

I've got 2 of these trains, and I've added DCC to both.  They have run flawlessly for 8 years or so.  A few weeks ago, one of them stopped working.  It seemed to intermittently cause a short, which slowly went to a hard short.  I put it on the program track and could not get the decoder to respond.  Looking at the decoder, there was a burn through the wrapping.

I replaced the decoder (a cheap old Digitrax DH 123) with a DH 126.  I put it on the programming track and was able to program it and read back CVs.  It ran fine, so I replaced the shell.  When I put it back on the track, it worked for a while, and then the behavior went right back to where it was.

It now looks like the motor has a problem.  I've got the car apart and I can run it on a 9-volt battery, but if I stop and start it multiple times, it will reach a point where it won't restart without spinnning the flywheel by hand.  It seems like there's a dead spot, and from the failure of the decoder it looks like the motor is shorted at that point.

When the motor runs, it seems fine, and there's nothing obvious like a bent driveshaft of off-center flywheel.  I get the same problems with and without the trucks connected.

Does anyone recognize the symtoms?  Is there anything that can be done to fix it?  Alternately, any ideas where I could get another one of these motors?

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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