LIonel Legacy Lionmaster Challenger 1-82695 Help and advice please?

The worm and axle gear may be binding.

Recessed into the bottom of each set of drivers is a motor mount screw.

You can try loosening this screw a bit, and put some rotational pressure on the drivers and tighten the screw to reseat the motor.

Try it in either direction of driver rotation.

Is the motor able to be dis-assembled? (Note that I am not familiar with the motors that Lionel used in these) If it is, check for anything in the armature/stator area, a bent armature shaft, or anything that looks abnormal. If the two motors are the same, you would have something to compare the "bad" motor against. A comment out of curiosity: Can you swap the motors around and (for the time being, anyway) run it with just the rear driver set powered? I ask as I have a two-rail Challenger that was built that way and runs/pulls quite well.

Also check the motor mount to make sure it's not broken or bent.

Hi Mike,

I have the earlier Lionmaster Legacy Challenger. I picked it up from EBay for $100 as it was quiet badly damaged and I rebuilt it. 

I had exactly the same issue when I finished rebuilding it and found one of the motors was shot. I think the brushes had come out of alignment inside or were damaged. A new motor sorted it.

The Challenger uses the Liondrive style motor to truck connector.  I have the first  Lionmaster Legacy Big Boy and that uses the worm gear motor to truck connection. I had a rear motor failure on that engine as well which also acted the same as you describe.

Nick

Thanks everyone. Nick you could be right re the motor and as a sealed unit replacement is the only option.

If nothing else is suggested i will have to bite the bullet.

MIKE

Yes that’s what I ended up doing in both cases. I had a good look at the motor from my big boy at the time. I have owned that loco from brand new.

And I’m sure it was one of the brushes that was causing the problem. It seamed that it had broken free from its mount in the motor. As they are sealed units all you can do is bin it and order a new one. 

Nick

You can disconnect the motors from the electronics and drive them with a bench power supply to check them.  I'd probably do that before buying a new motor.

Thanks again all - Going to try the motor out of the engine and lubricate all the motion and see if we have an improvement. I see from their website that I have to call to order the new motor - I wonder why?

Will report back.

MIKE

I appear to have fixed it!

Stripped it right down and full lube plus took rear motor right out - very poor Rotation. There was scope to possibly move spindle so rigged up some soft jaws to hold it - light tap with hammer to punch spindle through and...YIPPEE...now spinning well. Reassembled engine and now has great slow speed.

Either the owner ran this thing fast (he said it was only a round the Christmas tree engine and rollers show little wear) or it has taken one hell of a knock.

Just ran it for half an hour with 25 reefers in tow and all seems good.

Happy Mike!!

Hey Mike - congrats!!  Nothing like fixing something on your own; the guys here on the forum have patiently helped me work on a Big Boy; good people.

But -  'There was scope to possibly move spindle so rigged up some soft jaws to hold it - light tap with hammer to punch spindle through and...YIPPEE...now spinning well.'  you kind of lost me on this statement - scope, spindle, punch through?? 

Not Quite - soft jaws in vice to grip motor and then literally a "tap" on the spindle with a very small hammer where it slightly protruded above the flywheel!! i cant recommend this but it worked for me...

I CERTAINLY do not recommend anyone try banging on the worm or the flywheel if you're not supporting the axle solidly!  I've seen several motors killed this way, it's VERY easy to slide the commutator and ruin the motor!

You're lucky that you didn't kill the motor, and there's no telling if you slid the commutator enough to cause problems in the future.

Yes I agree John but faced with new motor as the only alternative I decided to proceed and got lucky. New motor from Lionel would have been $32. Only time will tell.

MIKE

Since it worked for you, no harm, no foul.  I just wanted to point out that it's a pretty risky thing to do in general.