Atlas/Kato Motor Help Needed

[choochin3]

Hallo Guys,
Help me help this ailing locomotive.
I have an older Atlas B&O SD7 with the Kato mechanism that has lost all pulling power,and runs VERY slowly at full throttle.
I managed to get it apart,and discovered that the motor brush tension is very weak.
When I applied additional pressure to the brush cap,the motor increased RPMs and ran very well.
My question is,can I remove the brush caps and stretch out the springs a little,or should I just replace the brushes and springs.
Also is any of you fellas have any of these parts please let me know.

Mucho Thanks,

[Philip H]

Replace the brushes and springs.  You'll labor long an dhard to tweak your to any better position, and then its likely not to go together correctly when you are done.

[sizemore]

And when you replace the brushes you will have to break-in the loco again to get the brushes to seat on the commutators.

The S.

[choochin3]

Where can I get these brushes,and springs locally?

[victor miranda]

I got a few at Klein's

you said something that makes me nervous....

"additional pressure"

are the brush caps loose?
that implies that the motor may have melted or at least the part holding the brush barrel.

is the brush real short?
like 2mm long?

victor

[choochin3]

Victor,
I haven't taken the brush caps off yet,so I can't tell the length of the brushes.
Additional pressure was me holding the power leads,and putting a little finger pressure on the brush caps.
I haven't noticed any scorching,or arcing on the motor,or smelled any burning smell.
This thing ran well about a month ago,but has been slowing down ever since.

[victor miranda]

mmmm little guesses on my part.

the brushcaps are not really loose.
(this is more good than bad btw....)

do you use conducta-lube on the brushes?
(a little C-L is good, 
and a little more often gums the brush to the barrel, bad)

Your next step is to pull at least one brush barrel.
with any luck, a little cleaning and you are done.

get in there first and then decide what is next.

victor

[choochin3]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.