A friend asked me to repair an American Flyer 4-6-2, Model #312.
He runs it now & then, and while he was running it recently,
it began to smoke from the motor area & he asked me to take a look at it.
I know very little about AF engines, but there seems to be quite a bit
on the Internet, which helped. This is a 4-plug engine, so I jumpered the
two center pins on the back of the cab & applied low AC to the outer pins
as several sites suggested to bypass the reverser.
The motor ran fine, and after about 20-30 sec, what I believe are the Field
Coils (??) on the top of the motor began to smoke gently. I stopped.
The armature turns freely by hand, and the motor began to rotate at about 6VAC.
It seemed to run smoothly considering its age. During the 20 sec.test, the engine
Was only given a max of 8VAC I could see the brushes sparking somewhat.
It doesn’t seem to be binding, but I am not experienced on these engines.
Shorted Field coils? Any suggestions?
If there is nothing that I can do, can anyone recommend a decent repair
service for this engine/motor? My friend is very sentimental about it, and
the engine is in excellent condition, so he would very much like to keep
It in good shape.
My Thanks –