My great uncle's 2243 F3 has had a wire come undone.... Again. Does anyone know of a way to repair it without yet ANOTHER solder job? This is the 5th time it's broken, first my great uncle repaired it, then my grandfather, then me about 4-5 years ago, then last year. Is there a better solution?
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There is to much soldier on all three of the connections to the motor. Clean off all the old soldier, tin the wires then reattach.
Yes, way too much old solder. Strip is all off and file the solder tab for good adhesion and cut back the wires and use "fresh" wire from underneath the insulation. If it's green under there, you might want to think about running new wires. All of this will make for a nice, neat solder job with solid connections.
Roger
The other wires to the brushes are fine. It's the one to the stationary field that keeps having issues.
They don't look "fine". Maybe holding for now. Have the brushes and springs on there ever been replaced? A good time to to a tune up on the motor........rewire, clean the commutator, new brushes and springs, lube and resolder. That motor will run like new.
Roger
yes. definitely too much old solder
Bob C.
All good advice in this thread. Everything below has been stated before in this thread.
My suggestion:
Determine whether the wires are long enough to stand some trimming. If they are, unsolder all three wires from the brush plate. Unsolder the field wire as well.
Remove the brush plate and clean it up.
Remove all the excess solder from the brush holders and the solder tab for the field wire.
I use desoldering braid. With all that is built up there, you will go through quite a bit.
Then use mineral spirits and/or an Xacto knife to scrape / clean away any flux residue.
Clean the brush holders while the motor is apart. Might be a good time for fresh brushes too.
Trim all three wires back. You should be cutting off some insulation, not just bare wire.
Strip the ends (maybe 1/4 inch), and examine the wires carefully. Do any of them look green or otherwise corroded?
If so, the corroded wire should be trimmed back even more.
If the wire looks OK, tin it and solder the joints. The joint should not be swimming in solder.
If the wires are too short to trim, then the best course of action is to just replace all three pieces. That would require a disassembly of the e-unit.
I believe the problem you are seeing with brittle wire can be caused by the use of excess solder. I think that some of the flux gets up under the insulation. Over time the flux corrodes the wire, and makes it brittle.
Reattaching the wires without some form of strain relief is a fool's errand. You, your father and grandfather have proven that! The easiest technique would be to trim and resolder as listed above, and then add coatings of liquid vinyl to each wire and terminal, making a full support for the end of the wire, moving the point of flexure back along the wire where there is a large bend radius.
An even better solution is to lengthen the wires by splicing (with shrink tubing for support at the splice), and then forming a "J" that rigidly attaches the wire near the center top of the motor (the pivot point.) This also moves the flexure point away from the soldering.
The soldering causes solder to wick up into the stranded wire, creating the equivalent of a (brittle) solid wire. Maximum flexure occurs at the boundary between the wicked solder and the free stranded wire. The vinyl support suggested above covers that boundary area and distributes the bending over a longer span.
I neglected to suggest that any replacement wire, whether spliced to the existing wire, or a complete replacement would best be the super flexible stuff that most train parts guys carry.
Reattaching the wires without some form of strain relief is a fool's errand. You, your father and grandfather have proven that! The easiest technique would be to trim and resolder as listed above, and then add coatings of liquid vinyl to each wire and terminal, making a full support for the end of the wire, moving the point of flexure back along the wire where there is a large bend radius.
I find that making certain there is enough slack in the wires to allow them to flex is sufficient to avoid breakage. Maybe its due to my using the high flexibility wire.
How difficult would it be to remove the vinyl coating when it comes time to de-solder the wires for service?
An Xacto knife can be used to slit the covering and peel it off.
So some slack wiring... Going to have to do some splicing I gues... Is there a solderless way to do this?
I suppose you could use tiny wire nuts, or suitcase connectors.
No offense intended, if you are going to work on trains, I strongly suggest you learn to solder correctly. All it really takes is a little practice on some scrap wire, and preferably some scrap terminals.
The most important things are having a reasonable iron with a clean tip, that the items being soldered are clean, and the correct type of solder/flux.
There are lots of "how to solder" videos on youtube.
Here is one specifically on soldering wires together.
(I do not use a flame to shrink the heat shrink tubing, I use an old hair dryer).
And here is a whole series by Pace, a manufacturer of soldering gear.
It seems to be primarily focused on soldering PC boards.
I might as well mention that I use different soldering equipment for different jobs, having accumulated a variety of equipment over the years.
Here are a couple of photos of the wires running to a late postwar Lionel diesel that was sitting on my repair desk. It has a two position e-unit, but the principles are the same. Note how little solder was used, and the slack. The chassis came to me this way. I often use even less.
As I look at the bottom photo, I think the closest joint is a bit sloppy. I am going to redo it.
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