I have never noticed anything on top of the armature. I am going to take the loco apart in the next few minutes. Does the thrust washer recess into the inside of the brush plate?
Steve
Now I am curious. If my 2023 has ball thrust bearings, I never knew it. It may be that I never took it apart far enough to find the thrust bearings. In any event, I don’t think you need to disassemble the motor to oil the bearings. Put a few drops of motor oil on the thrust bearings, and it should work its way around to where it is needed.
Servoguy,
I did not get a chance to take the loco apart tonight, I will look at it tomorrow. I have cleaned the armature twice, and sure did not see anything but the top of the armature and the brushes in there. I wonder if someone else had it apart and left the bearings out? I can always pick up the bearings at the next train show.
Thanks for all of your help, I have learned a lot in the last few days about this stuff. In a few days I am going to try to get the horn working!
Steve
Hey guys,
I finally took the 2023 motor apart, and removed the armature from the motor. I then understood the ball bearing arrangement on these motors. It finally dawned on me–both sets of bearings are below the armature. I took the washers and bearings out, cleaned all of the brown gunk off them with naptha, dried them with compressed air, lightly greased them with white lithium grease, and put everything back together.
Earlier today I removed the collector rollers from their shafts, cleaned them with pipe cleaners and DeoxIT, polished the shafts with 1000 grit paper saturated with DeoxIT, and now everything is back together, ready to test.
If anyone has any more maintenance tips, please let me know!
Thanks a lot for your help!
Steve