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Notes on Maintenance

by Doug Brown - originator of Cir. 2

Brushes-Commutator:

PLEASE do at least one of the two following procedures to the brushes and/or commutator:

1) Go to Radio Shack or other electronics store and get TV tuner or electric contact cleaner. Spray this stuff directly into/on the commutator and brushes while the motor is running. A quality cleaner would actually allow you to hold the "live" motor in a pail of the cleaner and NOT get electrocuted. I have seen this with my own eyes!!! This gets the "imbedded" oil (WD-40) , previous oils (human oils for example) and "gunk" (from all of the previous mentioned items) out of the pores of the brush material.

2) If you really want to go one final step farther, lathe the commutator! This sounds crazy, but it isn't. Using an Athearn motor, as an example, remove from the locomotive. Hook jumper wires from motor to test bed or spare power pack. Place the motor in a firm holder, not your hand. Using a #11 Exacto blade, CAREFULLY, CAREFULLY start lathing the commutator while running the motor. Make sure the motor is turning AWAY FROM THE BLADE. I must warn you that if you press the blade against the commutator to hard, the blade will peal one or more of the pole sections off of the commutator. THE MOTOR IS RUINED AND THROW AWAY. This takes time and patience!! But if you experiment on an older motor and get the hang of it, you will be delighted with the results. The brushes will not arc like before and the amp draw will decrease significantly.

When you purchase any type contact cleaner, make sure it specifically says "plastic compatible". If it doesn't say so, don't assume it is and DON'T GET IT!! If you live around any large city, there should be electronic supply houses where you can get the stuff.

You really need to take the motor out of the engine when doing the lathe and oil removal work. It can get messy and, if nothing else, possibly ruin a good paint job.

Tracks:

Forget the WD-40 for the railroad. Use it on the door hinges to the house and/or elsewhere. INSTEAD, GO (WAIT RUSH) TO YOUR NEAREST BARBER SHOP AND PURCHASE "WAHL CLIPPER OIL". ACCEPT no SUBSTITUTES. I use about 4 drops per mainline that goes around a 11.5 x 24 foot room about once a year. I use exclusively brass track and have no problems. I do not have sound equipped locomotives, which may make a difference. But I can run a train for several laps, shut it down, and come back in several months time and the train will start up just as when I shut it down. One bottle of this stuff will last you a life time and then some. Putting to much on the rail will cause wheel slippage, so don't put it on the grades. What I do is stick my finger over the open bottle end, get ever so slight an amount on it and run it up and down each rail for a couple of inches. I then cross the room and run my finger on the other rails. One downer to this whole thing is this. You must get the car and locomotive wheels clean first. Once clean, this treatment will keep your rail and wheels very happy.

As for using extra fine sandpaper on the wheels... If we had Superman's eyesight, we would see that the sandpaper actually causes minute mountains and valleys to form. These will increase the actual surface area of our wheels. The gunk can now build up on a larger area that we had originally. So we clean it again and the mountains and valley increase. You get the picture. Between the solvent and the WAHL clipper oil, this vicious cycle stops or at least slows down greatly.