Lifelike SW9 Loksound installation (N scale)

[peteski]

I like it. Nice job!

[Jim Starbuck]

I did a very short video with the updated mechanism.
I’m very satisfied with how it runs and sounds. I’ll work on a better video later but this will give some idea.

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Jim

[skytop35]

Atta boy Jim !

[tehachapifan]

Runs and sounds great! I'm still waiting on my worms but I have the motors to give this rebuild a try.

[tehachapifan]

Ok, my worms arrived and I have what I need to give this a go. I may have missed it, but I'm not clear on how the height of the motor in the chassis was established and affixed.

[Lemosteam]

Just wing (shim) it to get the proper mesh at both worms, maybe.

Also this from above:

"The motor holder (ed: from the bachmann S4?) is actually intended to snap down as a cover in the Bachmann S4 but it’s inverted here and fit where the L/L motor saddle came out by sanding off a few thousands of length ant trimming off the protrusions. The motor is simply taped to the holder with 1/2” capton tape."

I assume you would sand off 0.017" less of the pins on the bottom of the motor holder to raise it, based on this?:

"The brass worms are slightly larger in diameter than the flexible spring worms resulting in the motor only riding .017” higher in the chassis which I think still affords enough room for the decoder."

[Jim Starbuck]

The little nubs on the sides of the plastic motor holder will show through the square latch holes in the frame halves. Shim the holder up until the nubs are at the top of the “window”.

[reinhardtjh]

Ok, my worms arrived and I have what I need to give this a go. I may have missed it, but I'm not clear on how the height of the motor in the chassis was established and affixed.

Still waiting on my order from PlazaJapan.. Shipped 11/08 and no tracking number given.   

[Lemosteam]

The little nubs on the sides of the plastic motor holder will show through the square latch holes in the frame halves. Shim the holder up until the nubs are at the top of the “window”.

And I thought I was close to being right...   

[Jim Starbuck]

There’s a lot of “freestyling” in this install.

The only sanding I did on the motor holder was on the ends because it’s slightly longer than stock Lifelike motor saddle.
The .017” came from the difference in diameter of the spring worms used in version 1.0 and the brass worms in v2.0 being .034”. I then divided that by 2 because we’re only concerned with the distance from the motor centerline to the bottom of the worm.  Some of that distance got used up by the brass worm running a bit deeper in the truck gear than the springs did.
I wish I had definite measurements to say shim x” here and y” there but much of this was done by feel.
Once I had the motor in the frame, I test ran it and kept pushing the motor a little higher until it ran quietly.
If it’s noisy, the worms are bottoming out in the truck gears.
When you strip off the plastic bits from the Tomix worms you will see the shafts are different lengths at each end. I used the short end on the front of the motor and the long end at the back.
I would also recommend insulating the frame halves at the fuel tank area with capton tape or even a thin piece of styrene. The stock motor saddle held the frame halves apart more than the Bachmann part does.
I hope this make some sense.

Jim

[craigolio1]

Any idea where one could buy motors like these other than Bacman’s parts department?

Craig

[garethashenden]

Any idea where one could buy motors like these other than Bacman’s parts department?

Craig

These guys have both 7x16mm  and 8x16mm motors. https://tramfabriek.nl/motors.html
The 8 is available either single or double ended, the 7 is double ended only. I haven’t dealt with them personally, but I’ve heard good things.

[craigolio1]

These guys have both 7x16mm  and 8x16mm motors. https://tramfabriek.nl/motors.html
The 8 is available either single or double ended, the 7 is double ended only. I haven’t dealt with them personally, but I’ve heard good things.

Thank you for the link. I guess I should’ve asked my actual question which is can we get the motor cheaper than from the Bachman parts department.

[peteski]

Thank you for the link. I guess I should’ve asked my actual question which is can we get the motor cheaper than from the Bachman parts department.

LOL!  I was thinking the same thing.    Since there are no prices on tramfabriek.nl site, if you decide to contact them, let us all know what the motor prices are.

[Lemosteam]

Prices are there in euros.