Hi all.
I have a problem with the motor on a (repro) Lionel 101 trolley. At first I thought I had burned out the motor, but that doesn't seem to be the case after more tinkering. First, everything is real tight, I have lubricated all of the usual places and that did help, but it still seems tight. Second, there is excessive arcing between the brushes and the motor armature, and I get a white puff of smoke at this location if I leave the power applied too long while trying to get the darn thing to turn over.
I removed the brushes, and cleaned them. I cleaned the armature surface where the brushes slide (don't know what that's called on an a.c. motor). The brushes seem to be made of bronze rather than carbon. I don't think I have seen that before.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what I should do next? I have considered disassembly and reassembly to "un-torque" some of the motor frame and possibly free up some of the mechanism. I bought this set some years ago and never ran it until now. Any thoughts would be helpful.
Dave Wilson
