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RP Install help

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WyldBill:
Hi Tim,
I found that exact same diagram late last night. So that is an old pancake motor in there. What you said make sense....if I were to use track power. But I'm planning on installing a battery in the tender along with the LM so that cuts down on the number of wires to the loco. My only question now is where the motor wires get soldered in.
Maybe this photo is clearer....

I'm not sure what the round items are in the middle of the white plastic housing....possibly brushes like you mentioned. Would I solder wires from the LM to the metal tabs in front of those round holes?
Thanks,
WyldBill

G8B4Life:
Yep, that's an old pancake motor all right. Should be fine to use with RP though. The good thing about pancakes is generally that can be taken apart to clean the commutator.

Unfortunately your pictures are just coming out too small to see any detail (and of course the diagram is of the wrong side of the loco!) but having seen and dealt with lots of pancakes in my time I can say this based on what I can see in the pic.

The two brass coloured "round items" will be the brush holders. If you took the tabs away you would find (normally) a coil spring and the carbon brush inside (makes for easy carbon brush replacement!). The tabs are where you would solder the LM motor leads (or possibly you could solder the LM motor leads to a pair of small solder eyelets and then just sandwich the eyelets between the frame and tab with the screw that secures down the tabs, but it's too hard to see if that's viable from the pic).

Going battery power will make the install more complicated with all the extra stuff to do but probably make the install easier from a loco wiring perspective. Don't forget though by soldering the LM motor wires to the tabs the frame also has motor power so you would still need to isolate the track pickups from the frame, and also the headlights and smoke unit from the frame as well.

- Tim

WyldBill:
Tim,
I was planning on taking the loco apart to look at it more thoroughly. Good to hear that a pancake motor will work fine with RP! My plan was to connect the motor wires to the metal tabs going into the brush holders. Does it matter which is positive and which is negative?

I have a lot of experience with RC vehicles so going with battery power is something I'm familiar with. The amount of space in the tender should allow all components to fit nicely, as long as I can get the correct battery size. (They are a little hard to find right now)

Thanks,
WyldBill

ON28:
Try deadrailinstalls.com for high quality batteries.

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