Greg, in my post when I mentioned dummy motor it is the plastic motor inside the top of the F units, I was not referring to the powered  motor blocks

Found a picture with the factory speaker bracket: (I had it all the time ha ha!)

 

Looks like a later model with the upgraded smoke unit, and the speaker looks like an oval unit.

 

 

 

Nope, deep in the throes of QSI installs in an ABBBA PA-1 consist with special 4 speaker enclosures. Being really anal about track cross level and elevation change on a curve has mitigated the issue so far, but I'm not happy with the suspension system.

 

Please remember these had the very low flange Aristo stainless steel wheels.

 

I will investigate, and probably pull out my RDC's at the same time, although they have the normal wheels.

 

Greg

Any updates?

Boy, Trigg would be proud!!!!

Update:

 

The forlorn hope project lurched forward a bit this weekend...For whatever reason, whenever I get Little Thomas off the shelf, the boys get pretty excited.  As most of the tinkering lasts about 15 minutes before inspiration or failure, this continues to prove an interesting project.

 

We started by rubber-banding the abandoned B'mann can motor into place, then leveled it using some craft sticks left over from the Mik's challenge:

 

The forward drivers spin freely on the axel which is still attached to the Tamiya gear box and motor, which, for the moment, is disconnected from the rest of the wiring.

 

The boys helped get the chassis and wiring harnesses out to the track at Haluku'ilio for the test.  Below, they are using fishing weights recovered from a dive to balance it fore and aft:

 

We then wire the whole thing up.  I finally got smart and used some spare wire and alligator clips to use for tests like this.  Only took four years...

 

 

The tests were inconclusive.  We had to fiddle with the rubber band to hold the can motor in place vertically.   When we got that figured out, the lack of forward and after bracing meant the motor wormed its way off the gear.  

 

After this, Kid-zilla went to bed, I finished my DIY controllers, and Oldest Son dozed under a tree.   All stop...

 

As I see it, this project is now at four possible ways forward:

 

1. Marry the shell to a new motor block (Pricey, but it would open up a whole new set of modeling problems getting the shell to fit on the block.  Yay....maybe...). 
2. Powered tender (Cheating?  But it would also be a way to power my LGB M2071 Glitchy Gustav who has a very bad habit of eating his idler gears.).
3. Figure out a way to permanently fix the drivers to the Tamiya axels (The rubber tubing wore down after a while.).
4. Figure out a way to build a motor mount for the B'mann motor (Slowly sand / grind down a block of wood?).

 

I also tried to use Little Thomas as a dummy this evening behind his track-powered "brother" Big Thomas.  With the forward drivers rattling around a bit and the after axel sitting lower than the forward one, he just won't track.  Too bad.  It looked pretty good and not unlike some of the doubleheaded plantation trains or those with helpers.  After that failure, the track gremlins set in, and I chased derailments and power breaks, whihc was a change of pace from this project, anway.

 

Updates will follow as they are warranted.

 

Have a great week!

 

Eric

 

 

 

 

Also, we don't have moderators.  We can't afford them.  

Bill, no one "closes" threads, because they are a helpful reference to others, that is part of why people will ask a lot of questions, since someone surely will have a similar experience to yours.

 

The only time a thread is closed is for going beyond the rules, normally political or religious content or just bad manners.

 

Some people may have some replacement parts too if you ask, if you want to hold off buying new blocks.

 

Greg

It’ll do the job for now, but replacement is likely in the near future. This loco was my first diesel I acquired about 20 odd years ago. Thanks for the help, y’all.  Mods can close this if they want. 

So most people call that coupling a universal joint or drive although it is really 2 universal joint on a short shaft... so that is your pinon and the cuffs are parts of that assembly?

 

i finally understand what you are saying... with all the damaged parts, i would think you need a whole new motor block.

 

Greg

So most people call that coupling a universal joint or drive although it is really 2 universal joint on a short shaft... so that is your pinon and the cuffs are parts of that assembly?

 

i finally understand what you are saying... with all the damaged parts, i would think you need a whole new motor block.

 

Greg

New replacement ball bearing version motor blocks, now made by Bachmann, can be used if considering replacing the old Aristo version.
[img]http://rldhobbies.com/images/products/detail/AristoMotorBlock.jpg[/img]
Bachmann uses them in their Eggliner (former Aristo-Craft product), and Individual Motor Blocks (part number, BAC 96275SP) have been available through RLD Hobbies.

For adapting the new version motor blocks, see "vignette" (article) hosted for me by Greg E. on his Web site, title:
"Upgrading Aristo-Craft Loco Motor Blocks from Sleeve to Ball Bearing"

Though the vignette shows an Aristo RS3, the same is done for other Aristo locos that use the same type motor block.

-Ted

Looks like my blocks except for plastic instead of that brass coupling. Thanks guys! Now to go source some new old ones. 

Here is a picture showing the internals of the old version Aristo motor block (with axle tips that go into the side frames)

This particular one had a detached motor wire that was fixed.

[img]https://elmassian.com/images/stories/motivepower/aristo/old_trucks/ted/AristoRS3earlyVersion2axleMotorBlockDisassemblyComposite.jpg[/img]

-Ted

In the first picture, instead of the brass pinion assembly, mine has a plastic cuff. 

 

There are are no traction tires on this engine. 

 

The second picture is exactly like the floating axle’s gear, only that the teeth are about gone. 

That failure in the floating axle is common, unfortunately, often when it is subject to overload, like pulling the entire loco.

Do you have traction tires on any wheels? Those can make problems worse, when they "grab" and the loco is stalled for example.

Are the "cuffs" the extended part of the gear casting? I think you say pinons where I would say bushing or bearing.

Is what you are talking about in this picture?

 

By the way, the gear in the floating axle probably looks like this:

(without the ball bearings)

 

Greg, thanks for the vocab help to describe the situation better. 

 

The motorblocks on this FA are the old-style with the axles going into the side frame bearing box. This locomotive is dating back to the REA days of Polk’s foray into G scale trains  

 

The sleeve I’m talking about is a plastic cuff with indentations for the pinions on the fixed axle. The shaft from the motor is metal, but the pinons on both motor shaft and wheel shaft are plastic. The cuff that connects them is also plastic. I glued that cuff to the two pinion parts and it is moving when power is supplied again. Before this, it would not rotate at all and was dragging while the other 3 axles were trying to push/pull based on location.

 

The floating axle then became inoperable as it appeared that the spiral gear at the axle itself had been worn down by the worm-gear on the motor shaft. Unfortunately, and stupidly, on my part, I did not photograph what I’m talking about. This wheel spins freely enough that it isn’t dragging or acting like an anchor when the engine is running. 

I'm still not sure I understand what you are saying.

 

The old style have the ends of the axles running in bearing blocks in the sideframes, not really "pinned"

 

Where you say you glued the sleeve gear to the pinions, I assume you glued the metal half axles into the gear casting.

 

I'm also interpreting the "spiral gear" as the "worm" , but my current point of confusion is why is the worm not engaged to the worm gear? Also it would help to know if this is the fixed axle or the pivoting axle... the fixed axle gear is revealed when you open the motor block, the pivoting axle has it's own little gearbox enclosure, also fed by a universal joint.

 

So, which axle is the one that is no longer engaged? is there worm gear damage?

 

Greg

I’ll try to clarify the situation. 

At this point, these are the first style of blocks Aristo used. Wheels are pinned into the sideframes. 

I glued the sleeve gear to the pinions on the one wheel and the motor-shaft, but now the other wheel set and it’s spiral-gear no longer makes a connection to the worm-gear. This is better than the earlier situation as that wheel is in neutral and will spin freely. The earlier issue  had the first wheel locked in place and dragging. 

John Caughey said:

I understood that the whole plastic assembly is spinning on the axle...

Exactly, as I did John. It appears that adding CA to the ends of the plastic assembly fixed the issue according to his posts. Now if one would take the time to re-read twice before posting as suggested by the experts all would be good.

 

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