Are All Scale Speed Motors Interchangeable?

[mmagliaro]

I heat the flywheels up in a cup of boiling water for a few minutes and (wearing gloves) push them on by hand.

Holy cow!   This is a a great idea!   Does the brass flywheel really expand so much in boiling water that you can push it on by hand without using much force?   If I seem unnecessarily excited, it's because it's such an obvious approach that I have never heard suggested before, and I love new ideas.   
Thank you!

[Steveruger45]

Holy cow!   This is a a great idea!   Does the brass flywheel really expand so much in boiling water that you can push it on by hand without using much force?   If I seem unnecessarily excited, it's because it's such an obvious approach that I have never heard suggested before, and I love new ideas.   
Thank you!

Hi, yep just did this on four of those $1 motors from China.
I stand the motor up on its shaft end on the bench/block of hard wood and press the heated flywheel down by hand pressure, sometimes (once in my case) you need just a little more pressure then I use one of those woodworking clamps, the ones with the trigger you squeeze, just to get the flywheel fully home. Putting the second flywheel on is a bit more involved, as you need to push against the shaft not the flywheel you just installed. Then I place the shaft end of the motor against the puller pin mounted/placed in a hole on a block of wood.
The hardest part is eyeballing everything is square before you pushed/squeeze.
You can also help this temp differential approach by also putting the motor inside a zip lock bag and putting that in the freezer overnight first, but I haven’t needed to do that so far.

[Steveruger45]

Hey Steve,

Thanks for the reply. on an old thread. I can get the puller to work on some of my atlas and kato motors but the ones I want to remove are from the revised F unit mechanism. Those motors have a round plastic mounting ring between the motor and flywheel resulting in most of the gap being filled.  Any other suggestions?

TIA

Mark

Hi Mark,
Hmmm, I don’t have any of those locos.  But you could perhaps make a pulling plate to fit the puller with a larger width slot to clear the mounting ring.  Would that idea look like it could work?

[Drgwspup]

Great suggestion.  There is a little space between the o.d of the plastic ring and the o.d. of the flywheel. Ill see if I can make that happen.

What about grinding down the flange so it fits in the small space between the ring and flywheel.  Looks to be 1/32 of an inch.  Would that make the flange too thin?

Thanks!

Mark

[Steveruger45]

Great suggestion.  There is a little space between the o.d of the plastic ring and the o.d. of the flywheel. Ill see if I can make that happen.

What about grinding down the flange so it fits in the small space between the ring and flywheel.  Looks to be 1/32 of an inch.  Would that make the flange too thin?

Thanks!

Mark

Hi Mark,

I wouldn’t grind down the original plate in case it doesn’t work, then you have lost the functionality of the puller. But you could make a new plate from 1/32” steel flat bar (which would be a bit of a sloppy fit in the puller jaws and that could be a pain and a problem in itself ) or make one the same thickness as original but with a bigger slot to fit, out of 1/8” flat bar.  In second approach you could possibly get away with using aluminum flat bar as the leverage on the exposed distance between the puller jaws and the side that engages over the flywheel would be pretty short and may be strong enough not to bend. Many hardware stores or even the big box stores carry one or two foot lengths of flat bar in aluminum and steel.
Personally, I would go with making the latter and keep the original plate “original”.

[rrjim1]

Just cut the saddle and remove it, Atlas has them in stock. There $.90 a pair.   

[narrowminded]

I have done them in a small arbor press.  I use two pieces of 1/16" thick flat aluminum bar slipped under the flywheel and spanning the press frame opening and then a pin just smaller than the motor shaft to press the shaft out.  Assembly uses the arbor press with the first one pressed on by just pressing on the shaft with the flywheel setting on the press frame.  Second one has a plug set in the hole to back up the shaft while second flywheel s pressed on.  There is never a load transmitted through the motor frame or armature, just shaft direct to flywheel.   There are no "special" tools involved with this method, just bits laying about in the scrap box. 

The press force is not very high for tools of this nature, evidence 1/16" aluminum flat bar being plenty adequate for the load pressing the flywheels off.  I suspect a drill press of any rigidity could handle the press forces needed.  Hope that helps. 

[Drgwspup]

Thanks everyone who has responded.

rrjim1 - the part I am talking about is the mounting ring, not the motor saddle that is currently in use. However based on your recommendation, I checked all the atlas parts diagrams and found two old units RS1 and U25B that used mounting rings in prior versions.  The website says to call for price availability,  I'll do that later today. Not sure they would fit across manufacturers but since Kato did the early Atlas locos, there very well could a match there.  Kato does not list any such part on their F7 (revised) parts list

Steve - I like your suggestion and will head out to the store to purchase some flat metal stock.  Always wondered who bought those items I've seen on display

Thanks everyone!

Mark

[rrjim1]

rrjim1 - the part I am talking about is the mounting ring, not the motor saddle that is currently in use. However based on your recommendation, I checked all the atlas parts diagrams and found two old units RS1 and U25B that used mounting rings in prior versions.  The website says to call for price availability,  I'll do that later today.

Mark

These are the parts I was referring to and yes Atlas has the Japan parts in stock. At least that's what the web site states.

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[Drgwspup]

Yes those are what they look like.  Have you ever tried them in an older Kato?

[rrjim1]

Yes those are what they look like.  Have you ever tried them in an older Kato?

Yes, I have Atlas scale speed motors in all my Kato F3 and F7 same part as the Atlas U25B. 

[Drgwspup]

excellent! that is the road that I am embarking on.  Glad to know you trail blazed for us.

Any particular things you learned in the process that you'd like to pass on? Other than cutting those mounting rings off?

Thanks again