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Points not throwing - help!


JohnR
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I just dont seem to be lucky with my pointwork. After a summer break while I regained my "mojo", I've fired up the layout today, only to discover that two of my points are not working correctly. At first I thought it might be some ballast having fallen in between the point blade and stock rail, but I've cleaned it out and it still happens. 

 

The motor seems to struggle the throw the point, and moving the point manually reveals its a little stiff, but it does manage to throw. I have a powerful CDU, and all point motors were working well up until my break a few months ago.

 

 

 

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12 hours ago, Chrisr40 said:

Hi, I have had similar problems in the past. Usually a quick squirt of wd40 in to the motor and operating the motor by hand a few times frees things up. Just don't use wd40 for anything else or you will never hear the end of it.

 

The point motor is a SEEP  (I'm beginning to regret going for them) - it seems to move freely enough by hand - do you mean I should lubricate the throw bar that slides between the 2 coils?

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It's possible the throw of the motor is not / no longer aligned with the tie-bar, maybe the boards have swelled during your break ? - remove the motor and test the point, if it moves freely it's the motor alignment, if not it's the point.

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3 hours ago, john new said:

From experience in the past I would avoid WD40 (Certainly the standard type) but use one of the dedicated electrical cleaners.

I would also avoid WD-40 as it dries out to become a very thick sticky goo and eventually goes hard.

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I'm not totally convinced it is point alignment - when fitting the SEEPs, I used alignment mounts, which cured the initial problem I had. Since then, the points have worked perfectly. 

 

However, my fiddling about has resulted in one of the feeds to the point motor coming adrift, so I will have to turn remove it anyway.

 

 

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23 hours ago, JohnR said:

moving the point manually reveals its a little stiff

To which I say - well, it shouldn't be.

 

I'd investigate the stiffness.  You may find that something is binding as the switch blades move. Prime candidates include the switch blades themselves on the underlying sleepers or the tie bar against the adjacent sleeper/connectors on the outslde of the rails. A little bit of filing or scraping in the right place might deal with that problem. 

 

Yours, Mike

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On 22/09/2021 at 04:42, Chrisr40 said:

Hi, I have had similar problems in the past. Usually a quick squirt of wd40 in to the motor and operating the motor by hand a few times frees things up. Just don't use wd40 for anything else or you will never hear the end of it.

Definitely don't use WD40 on the plastic on points, it will cause cracking of the plastic and lead to failure.

 

Might take a year or two to occur, just when you think there is no problems using the stuff.

Edited by kevinlms
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