Rewinding a Lionel Alco field ..?

It shouldn't need to be perfect, as long as the resistance is roughly the same as it was before you unwound it.

@Johnbeere posted:

It shouldn't need to be perfect, as long as the resistance is roughly the same as it was before you unwound it.

glad to  hear!.... it was.....minus the 1.5 inch of loss wire thanks

Actually it does need to be nearly perfect. Each wind needs to be lined up tightly in a row before wrapping the next layer. You also need to have about the same number of windings.
The first time I tried rewinding a motor field, it looked similar to the photo above and the motor barely ran. Armature and field rewinding requires a great deal of patience and attention to detail.

I've rewound a motor before and didn't find that to be the case. It sounds like you may have had some other problems, but I'm not sure. In any case, it's easy to test that the rewound field works properly or not.

One reason you may need to have smooth organized layers is to get clearance to reinstall the armature.

Interesting thread. I too have encountered motor fields (all 200 series) that needed rewinding, but always avoided doing so because of the re-staking of the field studs. It has been my experience that the alignment of the field and armature assemblies is quite critical. Getting it wrong usually means very poor running, if not outright rubbing of the armature on the field. I sincerely hope you have success in this, and would appreciate at least a final follow up message letting us know the outcome - thanks!

George

BTW, while you have it apart, check that bottom armature bearing for excessive play - because of the physical arrangement of the armature, bearing and worm, a 0.1mm bit of play in that bearing could turn into a 0.2mm bit of play between the worm and worm gear.

quote:   Interesting thread. I too have encountered motor fields (all 200 series) that needed rewinding, but always avoided doing so because of the re-staking of the field studs.

  As mention I have a standing drill press and able to use my machinist vise and  able to drill in the center after I remove the field form the chassis, after I drill down @ 3/16 to 1/4  I am able to use a 4/40 tap  then easily   use two 4/40 screws to bolt back on..

I found some Alco motors early ones with the bearing in the lower chassis (black rectangular   with small bearing  ) have a extra leaf in the field and armature which when you use the nylon bearing so it does not touch the bottom plate.. which I found to be a stronger  than the ones with less leafs...

"But"  ... as mentioned  I found using a F3  2028-100 and shaving and doing the same as above to be far soupier in the way it runs slow or fast... ..daniel

Im going to try rewind taking my time to see how well I can make it look  this week end..

I hate to bring this up, but that's the field you have pictured, not the armature.

lol  ! your right  my brain and fingers are not working together! lol  its nice to share but honestly I'm a hands on guy .. Between you and me sometimes its harder to explain on paper than doing... daniel

@DanssuperO, so how did things turn out? Did you end up rewinding again?

George

I honestly don't remember!  I  looked under all my alcos and don't see  if I ended up using  the one I rewound

but as mentioned I modified a 2028-100 motor and  they Run so good  If you run a  post war  2243  Santa fe  F3 you could not tell from the sound nor the power  the modification  did for these small alco's

I do remember it worked the way it was though. but nothing else  .. o boy the new year ahead  will bring another year for me  !!!   65 but once I know for sure ill let u know..

Ok found the one I rewound  as mentioned I pretty much replace all my Alco motors with the 2028-100

and have  a lot of fields single and double wound .

It did work fine as is but as mentioned runs  fantastic with the 2028-100

I wanted to share how its tapped and if anyone wants to take their time to hand rewind or make a way  you can drill tap and reinstall  .. hope this helps  daniel

Thank you Dan, I really appreciate the follow up, and the photos helped! . But I must ask, wasn't the purchase a  2028-100 complete motor just to use the field, a somewhat expensive alternative to rewinding the existing field?

I will try your technique of drilling and tapping the studs in the near future - I just assembled a bench drill press from Northern Tools, so I'll have to see if it has the accuracy to perform this task - those $70 drill presses seem to have a lot of runout fresh from the factory! I also have a drill press vise and will devise a method to square things up before drilling. I don't have the patience to sit there and hand-wind wire like I once did, so I may only try this on a couple of candidates, but it does fall into my "fun to try" category.

George

Drilling and tapping the field laminations may not be the best practice. The laminations are insulated from each other and drilling and tapping them could short the laminations together. AC motors have laminated rotors and stators to reduce Eddie current. Eddie current will reduce the efficiency of the motor and cause heating.

@David Johnston posted:

Drilling and tapping the field laminations may not be the best practice. The laminations are insulated from each other and drilling and tapping them could short the laminations together. AC motors have laminated rotors and stators to reduce Eddie current. Eddie current will reduce the efficiency of the motor and cause heating.

David, your point is well taken, and I would certainly agree; however I don't think he's drilling the laminations, but rather the aluminum stud that is already mounted within the laminations. At least that's what I understood. So unless the stud starts to twist within the laminations which could then cause a "short" between the laminations, that should be ok ... I think.

George