Disappointed that Lionel didn't include wire/connector with replacement motor

@Corbin O'Reilly posted:

Do they expect me to unsolder the wire/connector assembly from the old motor and solder it to the replacement one? Seems like a lot of work for a 50 cent wire/connector, they should have just included it. I would have gladly paid another $1 to have it come completely ready to swap out.

That's exactly what they expect you to do.  The reason it's bare is the motor is used in many different products, thus the cable/connector would be different for all of them.

The question is, would you have paid another $10-15 for the motor with the cable/connector?  It's not just the price of the motor, it's the fact that having inventory of 20 different motors because they have a unique cable/connector, but the same motor.

I completely agree with your sentiment and that it is just good customer service to package things as such. However, the reality is that you are fortunate to have been able to obtain the motor. Better yet, it even had the gear pressed on for you! A little bit of soldering work is part of the hobby and a skill that one should not strive to avoid picking up.

They're service parts. This is no different than any other service part for anything else. You buy the part you need, and its assumed you know what you're doing to replace it (otherwise you would have taken it to the repair man).

Brake calipers dont come with brackets, pads, slide pins, bolts and springs, Those are sold separately if you need them. Replacement freezer doors don't come with the ice maker panel in them, you transfer it over with the water line and the power connections. And so on.

No different here. Because a model train service tech knows how to solder.

This would be a good time to learn how, it'll only take a few minutes and I suspect the cost of taking James to a service center and paying to have the motor soldered in would get close to buying another James.

@Corbin O'Reilly posted:

Recently I had to replace the motor myself in the James LioneChief engine because the 1 year warranty was up. 1 year warranty for such expensive stuff is ridiculous. Anyway the motor has a wire/connector assemby that snaps in the PCB board so I thought it would be simple to swap out. When the new motor arrived it did not include the wire/connector assembly and as you can see in this parts diagram it isn't even listed:
https://www.lionelsupport.com/...1F-954C-7514CB9CE28C

Do they expect me to unsolder the wire/connector assembly from the old motor and solder it to the replacement one? Seems like a lot of work for a 50 cent wire/connector, they should have just included it. I would have gladly paid another $1 to have it come completely ready to swap out.

Corbin,

You probably don't want to hear this but a 90 day warranty is standard on many, many, many things.  You're lucky that your set came with a one-year warranty.

By the way, the length of the warranty offered has very little to do with how expensive something is.  Personal computers and cell phones are generally more expensive than James was, and many of them only come with a 90 day warranty.

Good luck with your repair effort.  At least you could get the part. Many times they're not available, and the problem isn't limited to toy trains.

Mike

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

…The reason it's bare is the motor is used in many different products, thus the cable/connector would be different for all of them…

The question that should be asked is why are the connectors all different? Back your view out to the big picture and ask why would Lionel use a bunch of different connectors for a simple two-wire motor connection? Talk about making things tough for the parts department. This part should have been standardized for all motors a long time ago.

This reminds me of a time when I was talking with a Lionel Tech, and he told me they stocked more than TWENTY different SKU’s just for tank car trucks. As I recall, there were more than forty SKU’s for passenger car trucks. It’s as if every time Lionel designed a new freight or passenger car, the designer started from scratch with a clean sheet of paper and never bothered to see if some existing parts could be used in the new model. The result is tens of thousands of SKU’s across the product line where only a few thousand could have done the job.

I agree.

That's a whole different question Rich, I'm just reporting the news, not making the news!

The reason the motors don’t come with connectors is because they all share their connector with other functions. Most share a connector that also supplies track power to a board.  
Even if they had wires with pins crimped on you would have to extract the pins from the housing they fit in to. With TMCC and Early Legacy engines this can be much more difficult than soldering two wires to the motor.

Pete

@Norton posted:

The reason the motors don’t come with connectors is because they all share their connector with other functions. Most share a connector that also supplies track power to a board.

All that still doesn’t prevent standardizing on a single, multi-pin connector for all applications.

While that would be great Rich, I seriously doubt that model trains are the only place this issue exists.  It would be great if there were standards, but that costs a lot more.

I came from a profession that had tons of standards, avionics design, and the price we paid for plug compatibility was prodigious!  If you don't mind $300 connectors and $500 motors, we could really revolutionize the model train industry!

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I purchased a soldering kit so I'll give it a shot.