Brass Little Joe Repair Manual- What Ajin SHOULD have done

[u18b]

I have completed repairs on the Overland brass Little Joe.

Wow- this was bad.  Pretty close to being a true shelf queen.
The shell is absolutely drop dead gorgeous.

But the average selling price of these is about  $1,500 - $1,800 (or sometimes higher).  YIKES!
Edit:  By 2024, these sell for 2,000    3,500   and heard about one that sold for a crazy 7,000

And all that money for a noisy loco.   This one was terrible.

The major design flaw in this loco is that the motors are not firmly secured.  They can vibrate in almost ALL directions.

Here is a short video of how bad they are.     

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I secured the motors.
Partially Redesigned the electrical system.
Partially Redesigned the drive train.
Partially Redesigned the Main frame.
Made adjustments to the trucks.
Cleaned all the trash out of it.

A video will come later.

But for now, here is the document to download.
My gift to Milwaukee fans.

http://u18b.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/LitJOErepairMANUAL.pdf

And by the way, Mark will be needing to eventually sell this loco to get his money back.
Contact Spookshow if you are interested in buying it.
Needless to say, this one is probably a WHOLE lot better than any other one you could buy.

Mark, I'll send it back to you at the end of the week so you can complete your encyclopedia page.

[tom mann]

Send the PDF and an invoice to Ajin.

[central.vermont]

Partially Redesigned the electrical system.
Partially Redesigned the drive train.
Partially Redesigned the Main frame.
Made adjustments to the trucks.
Cleaned all the trash out of it.

REALLY!!!!
You don't do anything partially, who you kidding. 

Jon

[spookshow]

Thanks a million Ron, you really saved my bacon on this one. It should make some Milwaukee Road modeler (who actually runs his trains) very happy 

Cheers,
-Mark

[nkalanaga]

Thank you!  Mine actually run fairly well, and aren't all that noisy, so mus have been put together "just right".  But the trucks are a definite problem, as they do scrape.  Now maybe I can fix them!

[alhoop]

Ron:
Outstanding easy to follow tutorial except I don't understand the following:

"The new flywheel does NOT need the
shaft to extend inside the flywheel. "

Al

[u18b]

Al,
Good question.

I'll come up with a drawing later on today.

[u18b]

Al,

Hopefully this helps.

[alhoop]

Thanks Ron:
AL

[u18b]

Turn the sound up on your computer.   

See how quiet the repaired Little Joe runs.

Sorry the format got stretched.  Don't have time to go fix it. 
Purpose is to highlight how quiet the loco is-- not my crappy video editing and posting skills are.   

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[randgust]

Ron, what a great job.   

I have no intention of ever getting one of these, but your approaches to problems are worth remembering.    I had a couple old Hallmark RS1's that remind me of this situation, had to do similar measures for the owner.   

I think I would have been tempted to go for one bigger honkin' motor instead of the two, though, after looking at all this.   I'm still puzzled why they did it this way, unless the interior body clearances pretty much demand it.

[u18b]

Randy,
They were.

My favorite big honking motor is the huge 5-pole skewed armature motor in the Life Like E6/7/8 plastic frame.

Big powerful motor, big flywheels.  Excellent quality.  If you ever see one of these old locos for 20 bucks or less, it is worth it just for the motor.

I considered that motor for this application.  But it was too tall.

I think one reason they went with two was the opposite space problem.  Because this is a longer than average loco, if you have one motor, then the u-joint shafts would have to be REALLY long.

I'm not justifying their decision- but it is an explanation.

So in the end, I just tried to improve what was there.

[spookshow]

Well Ron, I've said it before and I'll say it again - you are a genius! My gosh, this thing runs like a Kato now. Well done!
 
Here's my final review -
 
http://www.spookshow.net/omijoe.html

Cheers,
-Mark

[u18b]

Now that you have reviewed it,
Are you going to be selling this on your website?

I don't see it on your selling page.
http://www.spookshow.net/brass.html

[wcfn100]

Second time listed, reduced $100.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/OVERLAND-MODELS-INC-BRASS-MILWAUKEE-ROAD-LITTLE-JOE-E73-/251649669981?


Jason