Is this a Lima pancake motor and how can it be fixed?

[MGR Hooper!]

Hey folks!

 

I received these three Lima NSW 38 Class steam locomotive chassis recently.

 

 

It's meant for a long standing project of mine. One of the three has no motor and I intend to use it for a static model. The other two have motors (which I am assuming are the famous/infamous Lima pancake style motors), now the issue is that both of them don't run at all, all wiring seems to be intact. Can these motors be repaired/replaced? How easy is it to get spares or is there someone who can do it for me?

Can the model be upgraded to a more modern 5-pole motor easily?

Any help will be appreciated.

[DCB]

The motors look like Lima 94XX or 45XX motors.   You can fit computer CD drive tray motors to the Lima Motor housings if you use a scalextric white drive pinion, not sure how many teeth, on the motor shaft, but you need the motor for the housing.

The pancakes unscrew.  Don't lose the brushes which fly out when the spring tension comes off unless you release the spring first in which case the spring flies out instead and imbeds itself in the carpet/curtains/dog etc.

Usual issue is burnt commutator, clean it up.  The motors are pretty reliable, they just sound so rough, quite realistic for a class 42 diesel but pretty bad for a steamer.

Modern 5 poles will be difficult unless they are Tender drive 5 poles and will be noisy if you keep spur gears.

You could go for a motor gearbox, high level etc but Lima axles are smaller than the usual 1/8" so gears and axle bearings will be a challenge, maybe use Hornby drive axle and ease out the lima wheel to take the splined end.

[mikes rail]

Yes they can be overhauled,have a look on YouTube a number of very good videos on servicing Lima locos. One by MikesMovies is very useful 

[Il Grifone]

IIRC this model uses the tender to pickup from one rail (American style) and uses the drawbar for the connection to the tender. The Lima pancake motor is pretty hard to destroy, so it seems unlikely to have two duff ones.  Check the motors by connecting leads (or even a 9V battery) directly to the brush holder tags.

[wasdavetheroad]

Here is a good guide to servicing a Lima pancake motor

 

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=servicing+a+lima+diesel+loco&qpvt=servicing+a+lima+diesel+loco&view=detail&mid=4D20ACD6E32F295868464D20ACD6E32F29586846&FORM=VRDGAR

 

You can also fit a CD type motor inside the Lima motor casing

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

3 hours ago, DavidCBroad said:

...The motors are pretty reliable, they just sound so rough...

Never yet had a Lima pancake brought to me to be 'breathed on'  fail to restore to running order. Replacing brush carbons and cleaning the commutator of burned on crud (probably due to an over-oiling incident in their past) is usually the cure. But the noise is ever present, even on the smoothest running examples.  (It is a little surprising that no Lima lover has produced a 'motor silencer kit', which would probably have to include at least replacement motor bearings, bushed replacement gears, and an optimal match of sticky gear grease.)

 

3 hours ago, DavidCBroad said:

...You could go for a motor gearbox, high level etc but Lima axles are smaller than the usual 1/8" so gears and axle bearings will be a challenge...

That's an interesting thought. (I used this technique for loco drive on the old Hornby tender drive models and it was relatively easy and worked well, but these presented no trouble with axle diameter to cope with.) However, Ultrascale make (made?) some wheelsets for Lima OO diesels. Do these have the same smaller axle diameter of the steam mechanisms? Because if so that might provide a path to obtaining an appropriate gear fitted axle to fit the steam loco wheels on.

 

Bear in mind regarding my suggestion above that the last Lima I looked at was some years ago (HO class 33) and the last Lima stima must be a dozen years past by now (OO J50) and I never thought to compare axle diameters; so this is a 'further research necessary' suggestion.

[MGR Hooper!]

Thanks everyone, I'll see what I can do.

[cypherman]

Hi,

Do not know if this thread is still valid. But I would suggest that you replace all the motors with CD replacements. There are several people selling them on Ebay. I have used several from Strathpefferjunction. Just recently replaced one in a Lima J50 with great results.

Strathpeffer Junction Shop - Lima & Hornby Replacement Motors and 3D Printer Products - Railway Modelling

[MGR Hooper!]

17 hours ago, cypherman said:

Hi,

Do not know if this thread is still valid. But I would suggest that you replace all the motors with CD replacements. There are several people selling them on Ebay. I have used several from Strathpefferjunction. Just recently replaced one in a Lima J50 with great results.

Strathpeffer Junction Shop - Lima & Hornby Replacement Motors and 3D Printer Products - Railway Modelling

 

4 hours ago, 313201 said:

I have used many od the cd motors on Hornby ringfield motors ( steam, diesel & elecy outline ) aswell as a lima class 73 locomotive and the running qualities are vastly improved.

 

I fully recommend this conversion, it is worth doing and the motors last longer too.

 

Also, the centre gear cog has 8 teeth on it.  There are replacement nylon gears available for Hornby and lima motor conversions using the cd motors and the centre of the replacement nylon gear cogs is a perfect fit onto the shaft of the cd motor

Thanks chaps! We ended up motorising the tender with a custom built mechanism

[cypherman]

5 hours ago, MGR Hooper! said:

 

Thanks chaps! We ended up motorising the tender with a custom built mechanism

Hi MGR,

I would love to see how you did that. Any chance of some pictures.

[MGR Hooper!]

1 hour ago, cypherman said:

Hi MGR,

I would love to see how you did that. Any chance of some pictures.

Will post some when I am home. I'm currently stuck in a different city thanks to a lockdown.