MTH GG1 Pantograph Parts

Tom, do not say die yet on your pan motors.  Pull the pan motor and gearbox and do the following.  Look inside where the motor shaft enters the gearbox.  On the motor shaft you will notice a very small brass gear.  Take a dental pick and turn this gear a few turns in each direction and then put power (9V battery test) to the motor.  You should get action on the motor now in each direction.  I run a decent fleet of former 5V GG-1 locomotives.  I run from live catenary.  I see this very often what you reported.  I have put many back in action where people figured the motors were dead.

The MTH pan motor and gearbox is a well made item.  If you find you need a drive belt for your motor, go to Lowes or Home Depot and visit the plumbing department.  The belt is a #14  "O" ring.

Some of the motors are not dead just kind of bound up also. I had a few like that and put some light weight oil on the gears and worked them using my thumb nail. Then putting power to it the motor turned the gears.

Okay, I will check the gears on the "dead pan" and give the assembly a try with the 9 volt battery. The entire mechanism is on the tight side when I try turning the belt drive pulley with a screw driver. The "O-ring" belts are in good, solid condition.

thank you guys for the pointers. I will try them today.

Marty, did you convert your GG-1s to PS-3? All of mine are 5 volt at this time. When I finally find a "5 stripe" Tuscan version, I will probably look to convert that and one other to a more, up to date operating system.

They are a nice locomotive, well worth any needed conversions. Again, Thanks guys.

Tom

I also have some proto 1 G's with the funny looking chrome wipers on top of the pantographs. What I had done was scuff up the chrome with some fine emery cloth and use a gun bluing solution on the wipers to turn them a darker color. Looks better than the shinny ones. It kind of looks like the proto 3 GG1 wipers that look non scale or maybe ugly. That's just what I think, you may like the chrome look.

Oh, no. I specifically looked for the later versions to get the single bar pans that are darkened. The chromed look was a bit to gaudy and your suggestion to use gun blueing is a great idea.

I did make some progress with the totally dead pan motor. I moved the gears manually and couldn't find any dirt in the teeth. I used the 9v battery and it came to life. I cycled it a few times before reinstalling it and now it works perfectly!

The lazy pan is suffering from a worn o-ring drive belt. I will try replacing that and see if it works better...

Tom

Occasionally you tap the motor too to free a stuck brush. The 5V GG-1 can easily be repaired with the PS-32 5V board.  MTH has the proper flash code.  I have done several.  In fact this is also the repair for the PS-2 3V.  GG-1 used a special flash code and you needed the Flash PS-2 3V processor.  A generic non flash 3V processor board will not work.  Flash boards are now obsolete, so PS-32 is the only repair method.  G

George, MTH as you know made PS2  3 volt boards with 5 volt connectors.  That is how I converted all my 5 volt boards to 3 volt boards.  This was a very popular set of boards back in the day.  The PS2 3 volt boards with 5 volt (black) connector numbers are as follows.

PS 2 power board is AE-0000015.

PS2 processor board is AE-0000016.

PS2 processor (flash) board for the GG-1 is AE-0000018.  Jason would load this at MTH.

I have 16 MTH  G motors with these boards in them.  I am in agreement on the PS-3/2 boards we have today.  I am a monster fan of that board.  Early on I was involved with Jason with these.  

I have several non flash locomotives that were 5 volt boards that I converted using the standard PS2 3 volt boards.  I would pull the white connectors off the 3 volt board and install the black 5 volt connectors.  Change the speaker and you are good to go.  Many of these are boards that you rebuilt for me.  

Any MTH or Lionel with the small fan style motors can sometimes work with a sharp hit from a tool.  The best way I can relate this and all car guys will relate is if you have a power window motor that does nothing.  Give it a good rap with a hammer and you usually can get lucky.  George, I know you have done this a few times in your life.  As you mentioned, this will sometimes work.

Tom, like George pointed out, the PS 3/2 board is the hot set up today.   I have used many of them and they stand tall.  The old AE-0000018 (flash) PS2 3volt processor board is no longer available from MTH.

Thanks for all the input on the GG1 operating systems. Definitely a vast amount of info to work with. Thanks!

I have both pans working now! The first was a sticky motor. It freed up after I moved it manually then with a nine volt battery. The second motor needed a new belt (o-ring) and after I adjusted the string- block mechanism and now the pan works like new.

Again, thank you for the technical help. It really paid off!

Tom

Good job Tom.  I have always had good luck after moving the drive gear a bit.    Those are great locomotives.  Mt fleet has run many miles under live wire.  Knowing how to work with the pans is key.  The MTH operating pan system is the best in the world.  If a better system existed, I would have it.

Regarding the single pan shoe Vs the double.  Yes the single looks great.  I am a toy train guy and the double is perfect for operating live.  Looks not so good, wire contact perfect.

I would always make sure there is a thin film of oil on the gears. If I didn't run loco for a while like a year I would open it and look to see if the gears turn. I had the PCB board burn out and I think this happened because the motor couldn't turn and burned the board out. This is why I open them up just to check and even  look at the battery and maybe replace at the same time.

Thanks Marty. Your catenary looks very impressive. Is it the Marklin snaptogether type? I have some I used to run HO Roco under. It looks really good with O-scale. The GG1 painted for the "Congressional " is one of my favorite Pennsy schemes. Very nice!

My preference for the single bar pans is just for the looks. I guess they are later versions as they also have the air hoses, safety chains and MU cables up front. Again, a preference because I am into detail. The double bar pans are much more reliable I am sure. I don't have anything against the double bar pans, I will likely own one soon as I am looking for a Tuscan version with the five line scheme. I see lots of them in the older version but not many at all in the newer editions. Now you have me thinking about the silver Congressional version too!

Do they make any GG-1s in PS3?

Shurlock, thanks for the tip on oiling the gearbox. I did put a tiny drop of oil on the gears, but not too much as I was afraid of fouling the belt drive. The gear lubrication sounds like a good maintainence item to do when lubing the engine.

Tom

Wire is Marklin from Germany.  Every piece is soldered together.  No snap.  Poles are metal I made a jig to hold the parts while I welded them.  Brass gears in the gearbox are soft metal.  No grease or oil.  That would act as a magnet for dirt.

I spoke to Midge at MTH a while back and she told me that if the loco had a single or double wiper had to do with the road number. In real life that loco had a single wiper or a double wiper. But I know from looking at many of these locos through the archives that the locos had their pantographs fixed or replaced and you might see different than what you have. I seen a G with a single wiper on one side and double on the other.Either way looks great just don't like the shiny look and the rounded edges. Hey some people probably love the shine.

  I have several single shoes if anyone wants to trade for the doubles.  Hit my email.   They work great on live wire.

Interesting. At what point did they start adding the airhoses and safety end chains? They appear with the single shoe pans apparently...

Tom

Marty can you just get wipers from MTH? 

Marty Fitzhenry posted:

  I have several single shoes if anyone wants to trade for the doubles.  Hit my email.   They work great on live wire.

Hi Marty:

I have a double shoe from a spare double-stage pan...I'll shoot you an email.

Also, I have the TRAXX locomotives that also have motorized pans.  I have found them to be rather contrary.  One I have work reasonably well, the other collapses fine, but raises on 3/4 of the way to the wire.  I end up using the manual pans, as every time I'd try to adjust a pan motor, I just made it worse.  Will your suggestion above help with raise height issues?  I would love to use the auto-pans exclusively, but they don't always reach.