gunrunnerjohn posted:There are many motors on eBay that are bolt-in matches. As you say, until someone bites the bullet and does some long term testing, you don't know what the results would be. FWIW, I bought several different styles and did some bench testing. One of the batches had motors that were all over the map with current draw, from around 50ma to over 150ma! Those are in a landfill somewhere now.
The other batch looked a bit more promising, the motors were drawing 30-35ma and seemed to be compatible. I still have a couple in my parts box, and I have one of them in a steamer. Unfortunately, until I finally get my benchwork and layout going, it doesn't get much running time, so it's not exactly an exhaustive test.
That range of current may have the most to do with eliminating the 3 blinks.
