No Sticking Points!
Entry posted by Ray Von
596 views
28th April
Today, I have fitted four Peco PL10e point motors - with no major incident! I think this was aided by the fact that I also purchased a pack of PL9 point motor mounting plates and some PL34 wiring looms - no need for soldering!! (Smiley face)
So, my own method was this: I turned the whole layout over on a table (on a towel, to protect the surface mounted motors and the track) with the section of track I was working on overhanging the table so as to access the points, and one by one I assembled the point motors into their mountings. This involves bending of metal pegs, two of which are not needed and were easily bent with needle nosed pliers, and four more that grip the mounting plate (the diagram that comes with them shows pliers being used for this as well, but I used a flat precision screwdriver tip - as the recess you are working in is tiny, just a few millimeters, and even my smallest pliers were far too big to effectively do this) after that was done and with a bit of steady aiming I managed to align the EXTENDED pins (that's what the 'E' is for in PL10e) through the holes in the baseboard and up with the little holes in the throw bars.
Then, holding the unit by the mounting plate it was just a matter of making sure that the solenoid part of the motor could move freely and that it could adequately work the points. Once accomplished, I pencilled a line around the mounting plate and also marked the position of the screw holes in the same. There are three screw holes in the mounting plate, but I only marked out two - as this is what is shown in the diagram that comes with them. The screws are included in the pack as well, brass ones with a slotted head, I've never really liked slotted topped screws and was regretting having gnarled up the tip of my precision screwdriver when bending all those metal pegs earlier...
But, with a few pilot holes made with the Archimedes drill ahead of screwing the motors into place it was an easy job. I tested the travel of the motors and the throw bars once more - no adjustment needed, good.
Next came fitting the wiring looms, I bought four of these, as I thought there was one in each pack - there are actually two per pack, for future reference. These were easily slotted onto metal tabs on each motor with a pre-soldered fitting on each coloured wire, and the instructions were straightforward.
I wasn't intending to wire up the motors to their individual switches today, instead, I made a "temporary switch tester" - basically a connector block with three long wires of one red, one green and one black connected to an already established and working switch. This saved me a lot of faffing around at this stage, where I just wanted to know if the points would all work!
So, with the layout back the right way up and the wires of each of the new point motors and those of the switch tester all grouped into their own bunches and laid out in front of me from under the baseboard, it was just a matter of going along the line - connecting the motors up to the tester one by one. And they all worked, bar one. For some reason the motor on the set-track set of points, just before the curve, would only work in the one direction - nothing in the other.... So, after the tried and trusted "rearrange the wires at random" approach, I flicked the switch again and SUCCESS! I haven't a clue why, but there you go!
At some point over the weekend I will set to work connecting each motor to its own switch and I also need to cut about 4mm off each of the motor pins, that are currently protruding above the throw bars. I'll probably consult RMweb about that...
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