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Header: Hal-Zuzzu Model Railway Build Blog |
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| Published: Friday, January 14, 2022 | ||||||
| Post: #107/174 - Views: 45006 |
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Replacing motor on a GF N Gauge EWS Class 66 (371-384A) This is part one of two. Last night my EWS Class 66 decided to simply stop halfway down the helix. Not understanding why at the time, I pushed it along, but there was no response. All the lights were flashing and did not give it much thought at the time because I had never seen them do that. After it failed to move, I removed it from the track to let the other trains pass through that block. Did some Googling and found out that 99% of the time, this happens when the motor dies. Annoyed as I was, not having many hours on the locomotive, I decided to call it a day and went away. The next day I approached the problem with a good night's sleep and started taking the loco apart.
The first thing I did was to replace the decoder with the factory blanking plate and run it on DC. This time all the lights worked normally but did not blink. The blinking is a way the decoder informs you that there is a short on the loco. Obviously, in DC mode the loco is not as intelligent. 
I then decided it was time to take this apart, piece by piece and without any form of help as there was none on the web that I could find to help me. I kept reminding myself to be slow and GENTLE. Everything is so tiny that I keep imagining that even breathing too close to some of the parts could break them!! I have done enough damage on other locos and wagons, I learnt the hard way, no matter how many times I was warned to be gentle. So, first off was the PCB light board, held down by 2 tiny screws. Next was those two plastic clips that held the two sides of the chassis together. I was hoping to not have to remove the cabs to get to the motor but I was wrong.
The next part is to remove the cabs. VERY VERY gently insert a small flat screwdriver under the cab. In my case, the cabs were held down with some sticky goo, so all I had to do is lever it up and away from the chassis until the goo broke away. I didn't remove the goo as I will need it to secure the cabs back in place when I'm done. 
Now that both cabs are free, I simply lifted the PCB and moved it out of the way 
Next, I removed the bogies. I am not sure how these are supposed to be removed, but I have so far always pulled them away from the chassis. They put up quite a fight but I don't see any other way. 
Next is to remove the lower frame. I levered away the parts circled in the image. I kept reminding myself to be gentle. I broke this part on one of my 33s and Dapol had no replacement part last I checked, so easy does it. 
And just like that, it came off. 
I then removed the one screw that was covered by the fuel tank and that was it. The chassis simply splits apart to gain access to the motor. 
I simply lifted the motor out of its socket, carefully making sure the drive shafts on both sides stayed with the chassis. I will not need these until it is time to put it all back in place. As you can see, the motor has a lot of metal fragments around the shaft on the right-hand side of this image. The motor spins smoothly and easily with my fingers, but when supplied with 12v DC I get no response, not even a puff of smoke! 
These, in a nutshell, are all the parts that make up the Class 66 locomotive. 
I did try to open the motor to clean it out and try again, but those flywheels are on tight and I will need a tool to get them off. In the next part of this post, I will be installing the same motor if I can fix it, otherwise, I'll get a new one. Either way, I cannot continue until I get those flywheels off. One might say that it is easier to get a new motor complete with new flywheels but where's the fun in that? Might as well send my loco out for repairs and ask someone to come to finish off the layout with that kind of thinking. I'll submit to buying a new one once I don't manage to repair it. Besides this, I don't live in the UK. Whatever I buy from the UK carries the normal price one would pay, plus international shipping (which has recently shot through the sky), import duty and VAT plus processing fees. I'll try to source it or something similar from eBay, from an EU source first which is by far easier and more cost-effective than having to actually telephone the only distributor in the UK to make an order. Unbelievable!! No thanks! Link to Part Two of this post. Stay tuned and don't forget to register for post updates...Check out the live CCTV camera HERE |
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