34theletterbetweenB&D Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Some time ago, layout operations were proceeeding as normal, when a Fowler 3FT moving slowly on a transfer goods abruptly halted in most realistic swirls of grey smoke. Looked great, but there was no response to any DCC input, so it got put aside for investigation. That has happened now, and the extent of the damage to the decoder is something I have never seen before, the rectifier bridge has all but combusted away. This chassis had been running very smoothly and sweetly with a hardwired Lenz silver mini for the best part of four years. With the very burnt decoder out, the motor proved to be the cause. It still runs - badly - on DC drawing anything up to an amp, needs a lot of juice to start and fails to get much speed on. Spins freely enough by hand but there is a harsh rattling sound. Reckon a motor coil has come adrift in some way, but have not opened the motor up yet. Anyone else had a similar experience, cannot recall any motor since K's went out of business 'going off' in this way. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin_m Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 I've had something very similar with two Farish class 66s. No obvious physical signs but the resistance between terminals went down close to zero with the armature in certain positions. Putting the story on a forum somebody reported the same with something in Bachmann 00. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PaulCheffus Posted October 20, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 20, 2011 I've had something very similar with two Farish class 66s. No obvious physical signs but the resistance between terminals went down close to zero with the armature in certain positions. Putting the story on a forum somebody reported the same with something in Bachmann 00. Hi I've got a Farish 37 that appears to have gone this way as well. Strangely it will occasionally still run perfectly for 10 minutes and then stop with a short. If I set the speed step to zero the short disappears and the lights come on. I've tried two decoders in this loco and they both react the same. They work perfectly in others so I am assuming the motor is suspect. Cheers Paul Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted October 20, 2011 Author Share Posted October 20, 2011 Opened up the motor and had a complete surprise. Brush sets: perfect Commutator: perfect Armature and windings: perfect Magnets: one with virtually no field. So it's a materials failure. At least I have a nice selection of spare parts, especially the brush unit which looks to be common to several small Bachmann can type motors. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.