Problem with 1110 Lionel Scout

Are you cycling the power when that happens if you are its suppose to do that F-N-R the switch for locking engine in F-N-R 

Nick, I have the same loco. I recently replaced the motor with  #2034 motor(I think that was the postwar #, I will have to check when I get home tonight). That motor is the one rcommended by Lionel as the "fix" to the original motor, which is very difficult to repair. I bought mine from  person at York. You should be able to get one from a parts dealer as it is a common motor. It has the 3 position e unit.

The Greenberg postwar repair manual gives some hints as to what you need to do to swap motors. Also, before doing that, you may want to try cleaning the brushes and commutatoron your original motor. Now, this is a real party with the "Scout" motors. I advise you carefully read your manual and look at the diagrams before you take it apart. And, take it apart carefully so you have a good idea how to reassemble it. Good luck.

I had one of those a couple years ago, that's the one with the wacky internal E-Unit that moves part of the motor field yoke.  I could never get it to work reliably!  I had the motor completely apart, nothing seemed amiss, but I could never get it to run consistently.  I think Jeff's suggestion of an alternate motor is probably the only realistic fix.

THe problem described above is usually caused by poor electrical contact.

Carefully clean the pickup rollers and the drive wheels.

Cleaning the pilot and trailing truck wheels will help too.

There is no neutral in those engines, just forward and reverse.

The engine listed in Greenberg's price guide gives a low figuire, around $24.00 in excellent shape. You could swap out the motor assembly without harming the value, as it don't have much collector dollar value to it.

Also from the way the motor and E unit are described it sounds like a 235 scout engine design, the 235 was very bad in my opion and the most difficult to repair if the repair took.

Lee F.

A little more on cleaning the motor:

I like to bend the paper sticks from q-tips and slip them inside the hollow pickup rollers to hold them up. Then a careful cleaning, first with either a wire wheel or fiberglass eraser. Then a final cleaning with clear mineral spirits.

Same goes for the drive wheels.

The track has to be clean too.

If this does not resolve the problem, then it is time to dig deeper.

The same problem can occur if anything in the drum/brush/commutator is making poor contact.  When I have the cover removed from the brush drum chamber, I always carefully clean the drum contacts (wiper arms), drums (inside and out), brushes, and commutator face.  (In reality, I often just replace the brushes.)

If the problem persists, then unfortunately, the motor halfs need to be seperated.

Then it's usually a matter of cleaning the roller contact strip, the axle contact strip, the axles, and once more, the rollers (I put them through an ultrasonic cleaner followed by a ride in my vibratory polisher).

While the motor halves are apart, I clean out any rust / grime, and apply some labelle 106 grease to the cast-in drive wheel axle bearlings.

Getting all the parts inside the motor halves is a bit tricky, but by following the directions in the Lionel factory service manual, it can be done.

According to the factory service manual, a motor with a pawl spring that is too strong will also cause this problem  I have serviced plenty of scouts, and have yet to run across one that needed the spring changed.

There is no "center position" for the E-unit lever; it should be either all the way forward or all the way back. These Scout engines with the plastic-frame motor have an oddball moveable-field motor which turns the motor brush holders to switch the wiring contacts. If the E-unit is set to cycle for forward and reverse, the engine tends to start going in one direction before the "moveable field" kicks in, then the loco goes the other direction. That is typical for those Scout motors.

I have a low-mileage 246 Scout engine with a similar (but later-model) plastic motor and it works well, or about as well as can be expected for these engines. I usually just leave it locked in forward.

These are low-value locos and you might be better off to pick up a different better loco for a moderate price, like one of the common Prarie-type locos. The plastic Scout motors are difficult to work on because you have to pull the wheels to open it up, and it's tricky to get the parts back together correctly. Those early plastic Scout motors do not have metal bushings for durability and are considered a throw-away engine.

Mr Burfle is very talented to repair Scout motors - few people attempt this!

I have a similar 1120 Scout which was apparently refitted with a replacement metal-frame motor and it runs great. I also have a 1061 Scout with a forward-only plastic motor which I've had apart. The forward-only motors are easily to work on.

As already mentioned, clean track and wheels and center-rail pickups are all important for reliable operation, otherwise any intermittent electrical contact will cause spontaneous reversing as you have seen.

quote:

Mr Burfle is very talented to repair Scout motors - few people attempt this!

I think its more a case of having the proper tools, patience and experience.

I tried to describe steps to solve the original poster's problem in three groups.

Most folks would probably be comfortable trying the first: cleaning the pickups and wheels.
And many folks should be very able to clean the items in the brush drum chamber, which was intended to be group two.

The third group is the one most folks might want to avoid. Having a wheel puller and a press with the proper wheel cups facilitates the job.

I have an 1110 and a 1062, both of which I cleaned the commutator, brushes and brush tubes, as well as the two rotors and contacts, and both work tolerably well. I have done some of these for others, even found a couple with factory installed smoke. When these work well, they are fun, and the noise drives my cat out of the train room. 

Also interesting is that on a low end loco, the contacts and the two rotors have silver contacts.