I am trying to convert an Athearn, spline style coupling, motor to DCC. When I powered it up in my hand, it started to smell like burning ozone. Is there anything I can do to reduce that ozone smell?
What’s the commutator look like? All covered with black gunk? Usually ozone is a result of a lot of arcing at the commutator/brush gap. Remove your brushes and springs (carefully!), clean the lot of 'em in contact cleaner. Spray your commutator and blow the residue out. Repeat. Make sure the motor bearings aren’t dry, one drop of light oil will do. Put the brushes and springs back in and try it. Hope this helps.
Lou
A little CRC 2-26 sprayed on the commutator wouldn’t hurt either. Just spray a little on, turn the motor by hand a few times and wipe off any access with a bit of a paper towel.
I have cleaned the commutater with a pencil eraser before. You might want to take a toothpick and add a touch of oil to it. Just a touch, not a drop.
Motor brushes are graphite, which is a dry lubricant – so there’s really no need to put oil on the commutator.
Absolutely correct a better idea is to either clean the commutator with an eraser or contact cleaner.
Contact cleaner will act as a lubricant without effecting the brushes.
Another thing to try is clipping a third off the commutator spring – the one that always springs out when one removes the top clip off the motor… It will increase the motor performance at low speeds, but it will lower your high end speed. I have an Athearn gp unit from the 60’s my brother gave to me. I did all the cleaning and then the clipping. The slow performance was vastly improved! There is thread here somewhere about fine tuning Athearn motors. It is worth a look. Chuck
Is there anything I can use to polish the commutator?
AN eraser works well - just blow out any crumbs that might get left behind. I just use the one ont he end of a pencil but you could also cut a smaller sliver out of a big one. Do this by hand, don;t try to run the motor and touch the erase to the commutator while the motor is operating.
–Randy
So i’ve done evrything that was told to me on this thread. at high speed it literally puts out fresh air (I’m not kidding !!!) because it is spinning so fast. But there is still a hint of ozone. Is this normal?
If it’s running well I wouldn’t worry about the little hint of ozone. It’ll eventually be so low you won’t smell it at all. After a good break in the loco should run fine if everything is good.
Try this. Remove the motor from the chassis. Attach power clips from a DC power pack to the power connections on the motor. Now turn the power up so that the motors spins quickly. With the motor on submerge the motor in a bowl or glass of water. Let it run for a few minutes. This will ‘seat’ the brushes on the commutator.
Silver Pilot what damage will the water do to the motor? how long do i have to wait for it to dry after submerging it in water?
While running the motor under water may seat the brushes (never heard of it myself) it will cause the ferrous metal in the armature to rust and may cause the shaft to rust in the bearings.
Micro Mark makes a fiberglass brush that can be used instead of an eraser: http://www.micromark.com/MINI-BRUSH-WITH-FIBERGLASS-BRISTLES,6557.html
just run the thing back and forth while the motor is turning to “true” the armature.
Not if done properly. This is an old slot car trick for improving the performance of motors. Look it up. Give the motor an dip in alcohol after the water break-in to remove the water and clean the motor.
Aha! You didn’t include the alcohol step before. Now I can see how it would work.