Motor won't reverse?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I just bought an old Lionel Hustler to use to repower one of my Athearn units that I am detailing. The Lionel unit was not running very well when I got it and was quite dirty. I disassembled and cleaned it. The commutator is a flat disk with three slots, which I cleaned and lightly sanded and cleaned the three grooves. Now it won’t run forward, only backward and is exactly the opposite direction of my other engines. Any suggestions. I tried reversing one of the wheel sets and it didn’t help.

2

Sounds like the wiring is reversed.

3

I’ve had the same thing happen with mine…as it turns out, the motor was reversed. take the unit apart again, and turn the motor 180 degrees (switch the worms, in other words).

As for why it won’t run in the other direction, check the tension on the motor brushes. It’s possible that one of them is loose, and the motor turning one way holds the brush with enough pressure to make contact, but turning the other direction lets it lose contact. Also check that there’s nothing catching the commutator or armature wires inside the motor itself.

Good luck!

4

If I remember correctly, this loco has a reversing relay inside. This was a latching unit so when the reversing button was depressed, the correct wiring was applied to the motor to reverse its direction. If this is the case I would strongly suspect the relay.

5

BB,

I don’t think there is any relay there. It was a fairly simple motor assembly with two brushes (looked like they are new, no wear on them) and the wiring is all soldered so I couldn’t reverse anything. I will try to reassemble it and see if something fixes itself. Thanks for the input.

bob

6

It was a fairly simple motor assembly with two brushes (looked like they are new, no wear on them) and the wiring is all soldered so I couldn’t reverse anything. I will try to reassemble it and see if something fixes itself. There is no way to reverse the worms as it only goes in one way because of the commutator end having to go where the brush assembly is. There must be something wrong with the brushes I am guessing now.

thanks,

bob