What is the difference between the horizontal mount smoke motor and the offset mount motor? The horizontal mount motor, I removed from a engine is larger in profile with a shorter shaft then the offset mount version. The offset mount unit will fit in the original horizontal mount holes if ordinated correctly. Is there a difference between both motors outside of the physical mounting and size? Rpm, voltage or otherwise? Any one have better luck with either of the styles.
Replies sorted oldest to newest
The current Lionel motors only differ in the orientation of the mounting holes, some locations require a specific motor orientation to fit. The slightly longer motor with the shorter shaft sounds like the motor MTH uses, it's about 1/8" longer and the shaft is a bit shorter than Lionel's motors.
Lionel on the left, MTH on the right.
I have only measured a few Lionel motors. The shorter case, long shaft, diagonal holes and longer case, short shaft, horizontal holes and they both have ~10 ohm armature resistance and both rated for 5 volts. In some cases they can be interchanged in others you will have to use the same type. The fan motors I have all have sintered bushings and I assume are made by Mabuchi. Some, unnamed forum members claim they might be counterfits but who knows. I would avoid the ones where the sintered bearings are not visible.
Pete
gunrunnerjohn posted:The current Lionel motors only differ in the orientation of the mounting holes, some locations require a specific motor orientation to fit. The slightly longer motor with the shorter shaft sounds like the motor MTH uses, it's about 1/8" longer and the shaft is a bit shorter than Lionel's motors.
Lionel on the left, MTH on the right.
The engine is new and looks like it was run very littl. It is possible someone switched the motor to Mth. But, the engine has the old 3 blinking lights.
I've seen the longer motors in Lionel stuff, I'm thinking they had them sometime in the past. AFAIK, the two I mentioned are the current offerings. There may be other specialty motors as well. I know that MTH has several sizes of motors, the HO smoke units have really tiny motors. 
John, The longer Lionel motors are not as long as the MTH motors, 2mm longer, 13mm vs 15mm. Those MTH motor appear longer than 15mm. I did run into a case with a Legacy Mikado which came with a 13 mm and the 15 mm motor would not fit due to length.
Pete
I've run into a number of cases where the MTH motor won't fit, but a majority of the time they will fit. I put about half a dozen of them in the Legacy Northern's for a spell, they were dropping like flies with the Lionel motors.
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
