recently i bought an ives 3252 o gauge electric train that ran perfectly fine i took it apart to clean it then put it back together and tried to run it but as soon as i turned on the transformer the engine made a loud humming,buzzing sound but would not move. attached are pictures of the motor and a video of it not running
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The wiring has to be with the armature and the field windings in series. If you spin the armature by hand does it continue to turn? If so there might be an open armature coil.
how can you tell if the armature is bad
Check the resistance between the commutator bars, A to B, B to C, and C to A. The resistance should be approximately equal. Check the resistance from each bar to the armature shaft. It should be infinite, or at least higher than .25 megohms. The commutator should be smooth, tight, and perpendicular to the shaft. The commutator needs to be properly clocked with respect to armature coils. You have to look at a similar motor to get that last one.
If it ran fine before you took it apart, then you did something wrong when reassembling it. Either you broke something, or you are putting it together wrong.
Did you mishandle the armature, muscle it out of the motor, poke at it with sharp instruments? If not, it's probably OK. You can still damage it if you want to by doing the things I mentioned, but armatures don't just go bad from sitting.
Don't get too bogged down investigating odd/unusual things that could be wrong. Look carefully at every step you took.
Did you change the wiring? How are the brush springs? Are they relatively springy? Are the brushes (little carbon cylinders) in place? Is the brush plate mounted correctly? Is the reverse switch or E-unit clean?
Just look at the stuff you touched or disassembled. Don't go looking for other things. Just look at the actions you took.