Large Scale Central

A bum LGB motor?

Electronics Power and Sound
#1

I recently bought a LGB engine and found out today why it was so cheap. It seems the motor is acting up.

It runs fine then when I stop it it won’t spin again unless I tap on it or start the worm gear moving. The motor looks clean and the contacts that I am attaching the power leads to are clean which tells me that something inside is loose or worn. The engine it came out of has very little wear on the wheels or skates.

What do you think and what can I do to get this going? It has a shaft and gear at both ends and came out of a “shorty” 0-4-0

#2

I have limited knowledge, but that’s never stopped me… I’ve read mention of ball bearings at the end of motor shafts, used to keep the shaft in place, a slight movement can jam the gears. I’d check for a tight shaft, length wise.

Not every motor has them for all I know…

Anyway it’s something to do until a real answer comes along…

#3

Train Li, among others, sell replacement motors. I had to replace the motor in an LGB Mogul, because it was acting up.

#4

A bad motor from LGB, say it isn’t so, perish the thought, where are the ventilators when you need them (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

#5

David Maynard said:

Train Li, among others, sell replacement motors. I had to replace the motor in an LGB Mogul, because it was acting up.

I just had a look at the Train Li site and their new motors are more money than I paid for the whole engine but their prices are cheaper than what is on Ebay.

I thought LGB motors were the best ones but then again it does say “Made in China” on it.

#6

most likely a burned out segment, but it could be brushes… does it always stop/not start from the same position (piece of tape as an indicator on the gear, motor out of the chassis)… stops same place every time bad segment/winding.

could have been overheated and might be resoldered… outside chance.

Greg

#7

I have a USA NW-2 that did this. It had burned out the leads to some to the motor windings.

On the USA motor you can look into the motor and actually see where these leads are missings from some of the windings. Maybe you can do the same.

#8

The older LGB motors were easy to fix when the motor stopped on one commutator. What the motor manufacturer did was pinch an enamled wire/s but never soldered.

Therefore one could lose power to a single winding thus causing erratic problems. I carefully scrapped the enamel off and soldered the wire and motor ran fine.

Of course these were the ones with the removable black/red brush assemblies. Newer motors are more difficult to repair.

#9

Dan, are they 3 segment or 5 or 7 segment motors? just curious, or has that changed over the years?

#10

The motor does spin like a champ but it sometimes needs a bit of persuasion to get moving such as a tap or a slight turn of the shaft.

This one looks to be solid meaning it is all metal with not plastic end so getting inside might be tough.

Checking over on the TrainLi site they have a new short shaft motor for near $60 which is the one I think I need.

I wonder if I would be better off finding a cheap stainz and taking the motor from that? I pulled the cover from one I have and the motor looks to be the same length of shaft.

I could use the rest of the parts for other projects.

#11

You might want to check with BridgeMasters to see if they have what you need. they bought up a lot of the LGB stuff during the transition.

#12

GREG, the short (62201) and long (62204) shaft motors are all 7 segment. It is the smaller motors (Gustav hand car, pantograph) motors that are 3 or 5 segment.

#13

Thank you my friend, was curious, we had 3 segment motors in Z and they ran like a 1 cylinder lawnmower…

Greg