Model Railroading > Athearn Motor Issue. (Resolved)

Looking at the video on a big screen it does look like the commutator tab issue, on most Athearn motors the tab is bent down. I can't see it hitting anything but it sure has all the signs of it. I believe mine was on a SD40, looks like the last Athearn was a light weight 45T-2 and before that was two SD40's, one had to be returned for the nose brake ratchet, or wheel, forget which.

Anyways, I reached out and dropped the motor in the trash.

TCnR Wrote:
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> Looking at the video on a big screen it does look
> like the commutator tab issue, on most Athearn
> motors the tab is bent down. I can't see it
> hitting anything but it sure has all the signs of
> it. I believe mine was on a SD40, looks like the
> last Athearn was a light weight 45T-2 and before
> that was two SD40's, one had to be returned for
> the nose brake ratchet, or wheel, forget which.
>
> Anyways, I reached out and dropped the motor in
> the trash.

Thank you. I will certainly take a look at that. This is also an SD40...Which made it easy to put it back together until the new upgrade Genesis motor arrives. Curious if you remember being able to tell the tab was bent by spinning the motor by hand?

It was a while ago so the details are sketchy. As the motor 'breaks-in' the armature would move around differently, suspect turning it by hand would not be the same as running it and then it would change with speeds.

Have an idea it was sparking but I'm ot sure if that was possible, or perhaps adjoining tabs were both hitting the motor frame which would be more convincing electrically, anyways it was one of those moments.

At first I looked for a simple replacement motor and then tried to upgrade to a Genisis. Figured out that would require some machining and maybe a new cradle or whatever. After some thought I started to convert Athearn shells to Kato frames, then a new batch of locomotives came in so that moved dowm the list a little.

So got the motor out today and discovered a issue with the upper brush catching on a seam on the commutator. Played with repositioning the brush with little difference. 

New motor is in and locomotive is running smoothly. 

Thanks to all for playing. 

Chris

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