Lionel Gantry Crane- Sparking and Poor Performance

Hi and welcome to the forum.  I have the gantry crane and have never observed the sparking which you describe.  My crane did become very sluggish after a few years and pretty much stopped, both the turning of the cab and the raising and lowering of the magnet.   I opened it up and found the problem to be the grease that was used on the gears during production.  It had the consistency of hard putty and prevented the turning of the gears.  I cleaned off all of the old grease (not an easy job)and applied "Red 'N Tacky #2".  It now operates as new.  It is not a difficult job, just tedious.  Also, watch how the gears come out so you can get them back the right way.  I would suggest doing it now before it stops operating completely.  Hopefully, someone else will be able to address to sparking motors.

 

George 

GNK,

 

  Thanks very much for the reply! Looks like I'll have to get into the crane and look at the grease. It's possible in it's years of shelf-life the grease has hardened.

 

Derek

I have to take my 2 cranes apart and fix them also.  I bought them new but the layout isn't finished yet so I know I will have to do it.  This just one of the problems with them but they are cool items to have.

Jim,

 

  Thanks for the reply. The gantry crane is a accessory I've wanted for quite awhile and we pulled the trigger this weekend. My six year-old son is very excited about it. Good luck with your cranes when you get to them.

 

Derek

I have the clamshell bucket and the magnetic cranes.  For the kids when I get the layout for finished.

 

Derek,

I have the silver MOW gantry crane with the built in ARC. If the same as your's, I can perform any tests for comparisons if you need to ensure that your's is behaving as it should.

Mike

Mike,

 

  Thanks very much for the offer. I ran it a little bit again and both motors are definitely sparking inside. There are little holes in the sides of the motors and through those I can see the blue sparks inside when the motors run. It's quite a little light show! I tried switching power supplies (I have an MRC Pure Power Dual and a CW-80) and that made no difference. I'm not using TMCC (my layout is conventional). I suppose I should open up the crane and try to see what's going on.

 

Derek

Derik,
Post is a little old but I just picked up two of these this week. The bucket versions.
The sparking is "normal"
Dc can motors. Brush will spark less as they wear in. Or self clean if not ran in a while. Rc  car guys run them underwater to break in for best performance. No need to.
But you will need to pry open the gear box and clean dried grease and replace belt. Square profile 1 X1-1/8 x1/16 will be deformed and slipping. Same problem with Atlas turntable and most reissue Lionel operating Acc like icing station and also AF Barrel loaders.  Buna nitrile Belts not designed to be stretched idle on such a small dia shaft pulley.
Get a one size larger O-ring # 23 at Ace or TrueValue in the little cardboard parts boxes for 40 cents.
Only because they do not stock correct size  #22.
You will need two.
Once you figure out how to open you will be able to do in about 30 seconds.
I use 1/8 wide hobby blade to lever the clip out of rectangular hole.
Let me know if you need pictures of technique. Can't do with iPhone app but will need to boot desktop.
You can get 100 of them for about $4 from McMaster Carr or splurge and get Polyurethane for $4.95 for one. Less likely to tear but not sure if it will work better or not deform.  
Fred

Fred,

 

  Thank you very much for the reply. My local shop (from whom I bought the crane) has been wonderful. They took the crane and had their repair guy work on it. The consensus was that, as you said, the sparking in the motor was normal (if a bit dramatic in my crane's case). The repairman opened the crane up, realigned some things and says that the hoist now works much faster and more smoothly. I'm picking up the crane from the shop today so I'll see how the operation is. If I have more problems we'll look at the belt issue you mentioned next.

 

Derek

If you don't like the sparking on the brushes, try a pair of 1uf 50v non-polarized capacitors from each brush to the motor frame.

I would try to tune down the power supply to the crane.  Too much power to mine results in poor performance.  Experiment by lowering the voltage and I think you will see a difference.  Find the optimum level of power to feed to the crane. 

That's true if your belts are slipping it gets really jerky. And of course if you rotate quickly your hook or magnet swings all over the place. But as I have discovered recently not enough power and the magnet is virtually useless. I have settled on using a CW -40 for motion. Gives me an extra lever and more realistic operation. And use fixed voltage for magnet. Easy to write the controller.

Typo. I meant rewire. Then all you need is a padded seat radio Headset And a little imagination. LOL

I have my operating through an AMC controller which gives me the ability to fix the voltage to both motors and the magnet at their optimum level.   I see your dilemna a little clearer now.  You need enough voltage for the magnet to work and the swing and up/down are also at the same setting.  I only had problems with the up/down motor when the power was too high.  It would spark and stutter.  Once set correctly with the AMC box, all 3 functions have their own power input setting and work like a charm.  Experiment a little and play with your power input setting and see if you can find the best all around setting for all 3 functions.

 

John Henry,

 

That sounds much like the way my crane started to perform.  I would open it up and take a look at the condition of the grease.  If that looks fine then you can start looking for another cause.  I like to look for the simplest fix first.  In my case it was the hardened grease, which I dug out and replaced.  I hope it is an easy one for you.

 

George

George,

 

While waiting to hear back, I went ahead and followed your original advice which was to open it up and check for dried up grease. Sure enough the main worm gear was was gummed up by grease. I cleaned it and added some fresh grease and it works wonderfully. Best it has worked since I originally bought it. It felt great to have been able to fix it with your help. Thanks for the quick response also.

 

John Henry