Slow Bachmann Voyager?

[SouthernMafia]

Thanks for the information and experiences. I have had a look at my 3 Voyager motors and they are all the same. Whilst the motor is in a plastic mount, the bottom is unprotected. There is a very shallow rectangular well, maybe 0.3mm deep, which supposedly should clear the motor, clearly this isn't happening.

 

 

I'm currently running the motor in off the track, and it is running warm. I have loosened the 4 screws which hold the plastic mount in place, these were quite tight and so perhaps pushing the motor onto the metal chassis.

 

I may we'll try some of these cooling pads that have been suggested.

 

Thanks again.

 

 

 

[DCB]

Running Hot, Running slow, sounds like the problems I have been suffering with "Anchoridge" motors which have similar brush holders.  The motors run hot and slow down when the brush springs lose their tempering. The brush springs lose their tempering through running hot. The poor contact then causes arcing on the commutator and crud builds up so it arcs some more and the motor gets hotter etc. 

I drilled holes in he brush holder ends and pressed the brushes more firmly against the commutator and the test motor suddenly started revving freely.  New brushes and springs may work wonders.  The springs are too small / not good enough quality for the job.   It's called planned obsolescence and I am waging war on it. If Bachmann can't supply springs there are suppliers on eBay who supply lengths of small springs to order.     My other thought (on an overheating GW 28XX)  was a cooling fan, blowing smoke up the chimney.

[Graham Radish]

In the case of this loco due to it having a plastic housing, i highly recommend you thermal epoxy a 1mm sheet of aluminium to the bottom of the motor, or wherever you can find clearance, wow this is a very poor design im not surprised they run so bad, years ago i had the Bachmann voyager set, it also ran like a pig.

 

you could also make a U shaped heatsink that fits around the motor itself, you could either use thermal epoxy or computer CPU thermal heatsink compound (ARCTIC MX4) if you can get it to clip on. thermal epoxy has a bond stronger than the motor itself so its never gonna come off, as i say doing this will dramatically drop temperatures in some cases it will halve it.

 

as it stands theres no escape path for the heat and it just keeps building up, doing this will cure it permanently and double the motors life. All farish locos have the same problem but their split metal chassis makes it easy to add thermal material.

 

But before you do anything lift up the carbon bush holders and add a drop of servisol super10 to each side, this stuff takes wear off the bushes and motor stator and ensures optimal performance.

 

Note: due to this being OO gauge and not N, you should have enough room to fit a 20mm x 10mm fan, thats another option. if this is wired directly to the motor it will speed up and slow down on demand. using a rectifier of course, or can easily be directly connected to a DCC decoders function output then use a function button on your controller to turn it off and on and control its speed.

 

Looking again at this if the chassis has a metal bottom, simply add a piece of thermal pad (1mm) to the underside of the motor. and the chassis, this will cure it.

 

Another option is you could solder a thin sheet of steel to either side of the motor, hope this helps m8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bachmann could easily cure this by adding 30mm fan blades to the back of each inertia weights.

Edited July 4, 2020 by Graham Radish

[Graham Radish]

On 03/07/2020 at 15:13, DavidCBroad said:

Running Hot, Running slow, sounds like the problems I have been suffering with "Anchoridge" motors which have similar brush holders.  The motors run hot and slow down when the brush springs lose their tempering. The brush springs lose their tempering through running hot. The poor contact then causes arcing on the commutator and crud builds up so it arcs some more and the motor gets hotter etc. 

I drilled holes in he brush holder ends and pressed the brushes more firmly against the commutator and the test motor suddenly started revving freely.  New brushes and springs may work wonders.  The springs are too small / not good enough quality for the job.   It's called planned obsolescence and I am waging war on it. If Bachmann can't supply springs there are suppliers on eBay who supply lengths of small springs to order.     My other thought (on an overheating GW 28XX)  was a cooling fan, blowing smoke up the chimney.

Planned obsolescence and laziness fella yes, a model maker like Bachmann should know better, they way it is at the moment that motor will be dead in a few weeks maybe less, yet they charge top prices which is very annoying to say the least. 

[SouthernMafia]

Pleased to report that after adding the thermal pad previously mentioned there has been some improvement. The motor still runs warm but it's nowhere near as bad as it was. A success I'd say. Thanks for the help.

 

[martin_l_jones]

On 24/07/2020 at 18:51, SouthernMafia said:

Pleased to report that after adding the thermal pad previously mentioned there has been some improvement. The motor still runs warm but it's nowhere near as bad as it was. A success I'd say. Thanks for the help.

 

As well as the heat reduction which is good news, have you seen an improvement in the running performance.

Thanks

[SouthernMafia]

7 hours ago, martin_l_jones said:

As well as the heat reduction which is good news, have you seen an improvement in the running performance.

Thanks

 

Yes I would say they run better, especially as they are for running as a pair:

 

 

(This was taken before the thermal pad was added)

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by SouthernMafia

[Jeremy Davison]

I don't think anyone has mentioned yet that one problem with these voyagers is the bogie towers and the grease used within them. I had similar performance issues with a 220 and had replaced the motor without success. I eventually stripped the bogie gear towers and found that the grease had turned to a rubbery texture that was no doubt dragging on all the moving parts. A thorough cleaning and re-greasing certainly helped.

Similarly checking all the electrical connections also helped as mine had DCC sound fitted and some of the wiring wasn't soldered very well from the factory.

Sorting both of the above has got my 220 Voyager performance to what it should be.

Hope this helps

Jeremy

[Sir TophamHatt]

Just to add that I've finally got round to doing this to mine.

 

I bought it 10+ years ago when they were not long released. Since then, it'd been sat in it's box.

 

Got it out to run in a couple of years ago (I never normally do this) but didn't particularly notice, smell or test to see if the motor was really hot.

 

It gets very occasional use now but found when fitting the pad, my motor was pretty close if not touching the metal chassis.

 

When I put the thermal pad in and screwed the plastic housing down, you can tell it was making contact with the thermal pad.

 

Still not sure if it will cure a problem that wasn't there but cheap and simple to do so did it just in case anyway.