I bought a Tyco Clementine off of eBay. The motor seems to be fine, at least to my eyes, but she won’t move even after it was cleaned (And I’m fairly sure I got all the gunk). It usually feels like the motor is spinning, but the gears don’t move. I’m not sure what else might help, so I’m asking for help. And I mean actual help, not “EWW Don’t use tyco you scrub”.
Make sure the small gear in image one is not slipping on the shaft. If it is you may need some loctite.
Already have done. And when I turn the spindle by hand both the motor core and the gears turn. Vexing.
You didn’t lose the brushes when you took the back off the motor, did you? If so, there’s nothing touching the commutator, so no juice. Also, the commutator looks VERY cruddy. Start with some alcohol on a q-tip, but you may need a little more abrasive, like a pencil eraser, to get it truly shined up.
The commutator is those three segments seen in your bottom picture. On the side of that plate that faces that part of the motor, there should be some sort of contacts that touch this. On most motors they are little pieces of graphite.
–Randy
Gunkhead:
There has been/is a great deal of discussion of this particular model and the underlying motor it originally came with on the TYCO Collectors Forum. You may find some more discussion of this model by posting there as well; in addition, some forum members there may have alternate powering solutions or rebuilding advice. Also, use their search tool with “tyco clementine”. I am not sure, but I believe the operation issues this model has are also paralleled by the Tyco Chattanooga Choo Choo engine, which also has a tender powered system.
Cedarwoodron
This is the same loco as the Chatanooga Choo Choo, just different paint scheme.
–Randy
http://www.goingincirclez.com/TycoTrains/Guide/PowerTorqueRepair
Possible a plastic gear has a few teeth stripped,
Rich
Hi gunkhead!
Are you sure the motor’s axle is spinning? Do you see movment inside the motor?
And are the gears spinning when you apply power?
Make sure the gear under and behind the big gear is spinning when you apply power. If not then there is your problem.
Charles
Looking inside the motor is just a weeeee bit hard with it closed up, which I would imagine it has to be in order to run if the brushes (Which yes, I do have) touching the commutator is that important.
I don’t think any gears are stripped - they don’t appear to be and they all mesh when I turn the workings by hand with the motor opened up.
The crud on the commutator was definitely a major issue. After having cleaned and refreshed it, I’ve seen the pinion gear actually trying to turn, and when I push the tender chassis along in the direction the controller is set the gears now turn. So based on that, lubrication is the logical next step. What should I use? Are graphite lube or Goo Gone good ideas?
you should be able to turn the big black gear fairly easily. Crud tends to collect under the gear and can cause the gear to be hard to move. If you can not turn it, the motor will not be able to turn it.
The silver small gear can and dose cone loose. That will also be a problem. It is worth a check, but usually when it comes loose, it will fly off and is lost.
Did you clean the brushs and springs when you had the side of the motor off? These are critical electrical connections. The have to be clean and properly installed.
There are a lot of tricks to these motors. The main thing is to keep oil out of the brush cavity. This is difficult because the bearing surfaces need some oil. Use an artist brush to apply oil lightly. It does no good to have the brushes swimming in oil, which is often why these motors won’t run.
These loco’s were indeed to run short trains at moderate to high power continuously. When they were designed, they were primarily train set toys for that purpose. To expect them to do better than that is probably unrealistic. When thinking about using an alternate drive, the added cost needs to be considered. It is easy to approach the cost of a better model trying to improve an average one.
Larry
As I have already stated in this thread, the small gear is firmly attached. [|(]
The gears turn, but do not turn easily even when I’m just fiddling the mechanism by hand with the loco dismantled. Lubrication is obviously in order, as I noted in my last reply. I also asked whether Goo Gone or graphite lube would be a good idea.
I would say that Labelle has some of the best lubs. Though I use Bachmann light oil on the gears and axles and Bachmann’s contact lub on the motor brushes.
Charles
You should use a light oil on these gears. The tiny motor will have a difficult time if grease is used. Labelle is a fine product but the cSt value of 0-20w synthetic motor oil is the same and is plastic compatiable. And a quart costs the same as small tube of Labelle.
However, based on your comments, it sounds like the armature has a winding concern. One of the three poles could be open or partially shorted. Either way the motor will try to run depending if a “good” or “bad” pole is aligned with the brushes.
I have found that these need to have the wheel axles lubed too. Plus fuzz gets wrapped around the axles from bein gon the floor at christmass. That can bind it. The wheels on the drive axles could be a little tight. Going by the statement that they turn but are a little stiff. So take the drive axles/wheels off and try to turn the gears and apply power to the motor and see what happens. There is a tephlon lubricant from dupont that goes on as a fluid but dries to a tephlone film. You can get at lowes. It is also very light. So that motor should have no problems.with it.
Oh, and when I said to check if the motor was moving when you apply power, I meant hold the engine when its underpower and look through the hole ontop of the little metal gear ans tell me if you see any movement.
I would like to offer you all my sincere thanks - you’ve all been quite helpful.
Helpful - the opposite of what the loco herself has been. I removed the gears and cleanedthem and their posts of gunk, lubed things up with a little Hoppe’s 9 oil that I’d found in the garage. Tried running the loco again, now it just seemed like all I needed to do was maybe glue the pinion gear again (I had removed it both to clean it and to facilitate removing the other gears). But then before I could confirm that, the loco just stopped picking up power entirely - even the headlight wasn’t coming on. And what do you know, it turned out that the solder joint connecting the red wire to its copper tab (and thus, to the motor) decided to give out. So I’ve decided… as long as I have to do harder work on this any way I may as well scavenge a disk tray motor and upgrade her.
Post your progress on that, please. I’d like to see it, as I have a couple of those drives with some varying ideas for uses.
This post stirred memories of when I took an Athearn SW (7?) switcher drive, and put it in a tender that was elongated by splicing 2 Chattanooga tender sections so I had a flywheel drive smooth runner. The tender looked too long though for a 2-8-0, so I put it later on a Rivarossi 4-6-2 with removed motor and gears. I removed the brake detail on the trucks in an attept to make them look less diesel. That was a long time ago…
Well, been awhile. And… I’m a bit frustrated and not sure what to do next.
The new motor is installed, and the wires seem to be soldered to it just fine, but it isn’t running.
Based on the headlight acting up, I would guess that the wiring at the smokebox end is to blame for the issues… but I can’t identify what exactly is wrong with these wires (well, other than the smoke generator’s filament being broken but that was an accident of my fidgeting with the thing trying to straighten it after I removed the internal plastic cover to have a look.
How are you applying power to it? If by placing it on the track, the bad connection could be anywhere between the wheels and motor. If you apply power to the motor directly with wires from the power pack, and it works, or doesn’t work, that helps isolate the prob. Then work out from there.
And a for what it’s worth, I didn’t have to lengthen the tender to get the Athearn drive under it as stated earlier. It fits with a bit of mods to both the tender shell, and the Athearn frame. (I still have it (!), and was playing around with it after this thread reminded me of it. Dan
Oh! And a request: Could you show us a picture of the other side of the motor, the gear side please? Thanks.
I have had Goo Gone melt some plastics. A better choice might be CRC QD® Electronic Cleaner. It’s plastic safe. I buy it at Walmart for less that $5.00.
How strong are the magnets. Magnets can get weak over time. If they are weak, the motor won’t produce enough torgue to move the engine.