Rebuilt Minitrix PC F units

Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
A couple more rescued from the cutting torch.
I got these in a lot of N scale parts.
This is #1665. The pilot was half gone, a crack ran up the nose to the headlight and the side skirts were broken out below the slot.
 

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Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
Both units were missing the horns.
I fabricated these on the lathe from 1/8" aluminum rod, then wrapped .006" steel wire around them and twisted it to form an eye bolt for the mounts.
 

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Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
The chassis were both stripped of their primemovers before I got them.
New mounts were made to hold these expensive motors i bought at a reclamation center in Phoenix for 50 cents each.
I disassembled each motor and pressed the shafts of the armatures so they were equal lengths on each side.
these are the mounts on one of the motors before the shaft was pressed.
 

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Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
This is how the motor sits in the frame.
Couplings were then made to conect the motor shafts to the worm shafts.
 

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Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
Electrical pickup from the trucks was through wipers and a contact plate on a PC board. I eliminated the whole system by hard wiring the truck to the motor.
 

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Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
These units run rather well for what they are. (not as good as my Kato F3 though)
This is an old Con/Cor F3B that I modified the frame to accept a pair of Bachmann dummy trucks.
 

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TrainClown

Member
Good work Ray. Interesting what you did to the shaft of that motor. how did you transfer power from the motor to the trucks? Also, how do you hook onto the motor shaft in a reliable way?

Is N gauge the smallest you have worked on? Ever work on Z gauge? By contrast, what was the largest gauge you worked on?

Just curious ;)

TrainClown :D
 

Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
TC,
Pressing the armature shafts is tricky. I ruined a few motors before I figured out the trick to it. When pressing the shaft you have to support the commutator as well as the poll pieces.
I made a flexible coupling the same way I did for the loco in this link.
http://www.the-gauge.com/showthread.php?t=6517
This loco has basically the same style worm assembly

I haven't worked with Z scale, Yet.
The largest is the 7 1/2" gauge backyard railroad of my dad's that I grew up with.
http://www.the-gauge.com/showthread.php?t=9407
 
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