Hey there! While listening to your 'all videos' playlist, I was watching this one for like the 10th time, and just caught your comment 'remember what we used to call the diagonal cutters?". Wow that was funny. I sure do! A little story, the first dikes I ever got were little Weller-Xcelite for electronics in 1977 for six dollars. A friend said they were the best. Wow I thought, that was a rip off. But he was right. They still work today, and the spring still works. Can't say that about MANY others I got. Thanks for the funny!!
Thank you very much for the super thanks!! Just sitting down to play catch up on all the comments. I wish I still had a quality tool from 1977. That must be a real good set of Dikes for sure!!
You're like a mad scientist trying to labor over something the rest of us would have given up on. Always a pleasure watching you work to save those special locomotives Ron.
You make a good point Greg, but the gears were not cracked when new. It takes years for this to happen. and on the flip side, it's inexpensive sets like these that got many young kids into model trains :-)
Do what I did. Grow a mountain man style beard (Few more years the way I've been going it will be more a Santa Claus beard!), keep a comb on your workbench. I lost count of how many tiny springs, motor brush springs, Kadee springs, and so on, I've had get caught in my beard.
I had so many of those go bad on me over the years, even after proper maintenance . I couldn't find the right gears to replace and got fed up. I ended up going to Northwest Shortline and re-powered them all with their Stanton self motorized trucks. They work great now, so no more problems.
Holy smokes!!! I just looked at their pricing. $100 for one powered truck?! $50 for unpowered?! At that point, why not just buy new models? Not a criticism, just a genuine question. I am in a similar boat and looking for options, but this seems pricey.
I've experienced a similar situation, converting about 16, Bachmann pancake motored 1990 trolleys, for use in other Subway cars.... It was a long hideous process, with many gears that were slipping on the axles. On top of that I needed to insulate the motors to use DCC Decoders.... Yes good news regarding other drive units.... Tenshendo makes similar, compact powered trucks, almost exactly like NWSL, but much much cheaper. You would need to order from them directly. When my pancake powered units, start to go south, I'll power them with these new Tenshendo units, that have a similar wheelbase size.
I love listening to you talk, the white classic drop mat makes it easier to see you operating on hard to work on models much better than a dark mat like I've seen
Watched another video where a guy uses ca glue and baking soda to fixed them cracked gears. I just bought a old Bachmann Diesel Express train set with the good ole pancake motor. First one, so watching all the pancake motor maintenance/repair videos out there. Thanks for another good one Ron.
Your 40 years to late for me. I gave up on Bachmann along time ago. However, I'm glad to see you making an effort to fix thes beast. The best to you. BarstowRick Out.
Cool repair! I’m not sure when it happened. But I heard Bachmann and lifelike came out of the same factory in China. That might explain why the motors look so similar. I unfortunately watched the FB game. Cause there wasn’t a new model train repair video for Sunday.
Greetings Ron. I really hate these pancake engines. For the most part, I change all mechanics or convert to dummy locos. Another great video. Congratulations.
I have a Bachmann GP40, same motor, same cracked gears. Was wondering about how to go about fixing it. You gave me a couple ideas. Thanks so much… Good show by the way…
Great video Mr . Ron . I have an old Life-Like 4-6 2 steamer that still runs great . But i'm not doing to good at guessing the classic models : ( I had guessed Groucho Marx dang it !
The first HO train set that I got when I was 7 years old came with a Bachman F7 with the pancake motor. I usually dislike Bachmann pancake motors, and usually convert engines that are equipped with them into static scenery items or dummy units, but by some stroke of luck, that engine ran smoothly for my entire childhood, and I believe the chassis and motor are still in my parts bin, with the motor still functional.
Excellent repair video, Ron! I think EVERY HO gauge hobbyist owns at least one Tyco Loco requiring a complete teardown as described in this video! Please keep up the fine work! 🚂
Another great rebuild. Those pancake motors are a pain in the ***. Almost every one that I have owned ends up burning up the armature. Good to see you getting these running again.
Great video and insight as always. I’ve learned a lot from watching your videos over the last few months. I only got back into the hobby in November. Thanks for sharing your ingenuity.
Hello Charlie, Yes it did. You did not leave me a return address or a way to get ahold of you. I'm glad you reached out here. Remember you can go into the description of all my video's and find all my contact information. That brass Tenshodo was quite the surprise!!
We have the same motors in our Palitoy/Mainline diesels. Cracked gears-a-go-go! The Amazon have packets of random, plastic gears, cheap, for modelling. Two packs got me enough to fix a "Warship" class 42. So far, no issues. Classic vid Ron! Keep 'em comin'.
The best thing these pancake systems are good for is kit-bashing two of them together to make one all-wheel pickup lighted dummy. Works in DC and DCC, and as a bonus, I sometimes have used them as converters with a horn-hook coupler on one side and a knuckle couple on the other side. (edited to include that it's a "lighted" dummy)
Hi Ron. Thanks for the info. I have a few of these to work on, now I know what to look for. Good video, working on an Army set today, wish me luck...lol. Cheers
Thanks for all your great work, working with these Bachmann pancake Motor units! One year ago, I unpacked 16, 1990s era trolleys, with pancake motors. This with the idea of powering, my 50 year old subway cars Through the long hideous, miserable process, with slipping gears, and then trying to convert them to DCC by insulating the metal motor housings. I re powered about 12 subway cars. Leaving a few Bachmann spare pancake motors. New good news though... Tenshendo makes powered trucks of various sizes, very similar to NWSL, but much cheaper. I'll be using, and modifying them, to replace the pancake drives. Thanks again for your excellent video!
@@classicmodeltrains Yeah Ron; I did not know what I was getting into originally, with these pancake motors. It took several months of concentration, to both convert, and get up and running decently, on DCC. Repairing many slipping gears, and insulating the motor, in the process. As always; Great videos Ron!
Thank you Ron for another excellent video on repair and maintenance of model trains. I avoid the pancake drive types when possible yet some have found their way into the collection over the years. I intend to reference your video as my guide for disassembly and repair of those that have the tell tale click. Your channel is a inspiration for those who would otherwise shun the train set type locomotives. There is hope that even they can be brought back to mainline service. .....and yes, I spent my Sunday Night lubing Roco or Athearn mechanisms and running double headers on the 4x8 in the basement. Please keep on making these videos. Best wishes, George
Another very informative vlog Ron, you are a great resource for the hobby, always interesting and fun, you always make my day, and Im sure many others feel the same. A very nice man in a very nice hobby! Thanks as always, regards, Joe
Hi Ron the British rail class 42 warship diesel and the class 45 diesel from mainline have the same motor and there is a seller on eBay that makes 3D printed replacement gear's for these motors and Peter's spares in the UK makes replacement motor brushes for these as well, and a good video Ron
Very good job on fixing that loco! I have the same loco but the shell on it is not in the best condition an the gears on it looked pretty good and thats cool that you put a life like motor into the bachmann one.
Holy crap!!! Who knew??? Great video and happy birthday a year ago, at some point😂 Hey, I dated Mara Corday at a USO thingy years ago, NOT 😂 You real are great, gotta love this stuff. Thanks, Ron
You really worked hard to get that locomotive to run. I would have enjoyed it, if it weren't for foul language! lol. It was another fine video. Thanks Ron.
Great job and awesome information about how similar both manufacturers really are and I also have lots of the Bachman locos with those annoying tics it’s such a shame they made them so inferior like that.
This is just fantastic and so useful Ron. It is a shame the pancake motor was so poorly presented to North American modellers as when done correctly they can achieve an amazing performance. Fleischmann's one was the best HO drive worldwide for decades until Kato motors came along.
Years back I called and complained (when you could still do that) to someone at Bachmann about those pancake motors being junk... the lady I talked to sounded kind of mad and said "Well, if properly maintained, they should work just fiine!" Oh, really?😂😂😂
Another great video Ron! I have avoided HO Bachmann locomotives and only have two I think one Prairie steam loco and an old metal frame F Unit. I do have a number of Bachmann N scale F units and they suffer from broken gearing. Bachmann USA sucks will not by anymore. British Bachmann seems to have avoided the gear issues.
Great video as usual, always learning new stuff! Btw, when are you doing a video review of your shelves? They look great and I’m sure I could learn something before trying to mount some myself!
Hi Ron, great video. If you have one good idler gear you can just leave the other one out but make sure you put two wheels with traction tires on the axel side with the good one. It pulls great and sounds great. Don’t lose that good idler gear because they are rare as hen’s teeth.
Thank you for sharing your techniques! I shared with the Nscale Highrail group that focuses on getting older nscale to run, many have pancake motors in them! Smaller of course but hoping the principles are the same.
I’ve been collecting both Bachmann and Life-Like pancake motors for a while. I’ve resurrected a few Bachmanns by manually boring the Life-Like gears out. Still working on a better way to do it. For my next project, I’m going to Frankenstein two motors on one chassis!
Rock Island did field some U33Bs in their "Bankruptcy Blue" livery. They had the AAR pattern trucks rather than the bloomberg style on the Bachmann models. "Bankruptcy Blue" is my third favorite railway livery, right behind BC Rail's Two-tone green and Great Northern's "Big Sky Blue" livery.
I like the Athearn blue box engines. They are easier to work on and more durable. They don't need any sound decoder either as their gears make more than enough noise on their own. Interesting repair.
Comment time: Good to see you could remove the cover from the bottom of the trucks. Don't know how many of those I've broken. The broken gear is a Curse from the Train Gods, Just found one on an axel/gear. When I removed the wheel and axel assembly, gear came out in two pieces. Was thinking during your video (yes, I think sometimes) You should have a fair supply of parts. It is interesting how so many trains and parts are similar, but different. Could be attributed to better engineering or Patents. F unites, so many and have you ever noticed. If there is a sign directing you to a Train Station, they use a silhouette of the front of a F unite. Thanks for the Video, you made my day. (I skipped the Super Bowl too)
Hello Lynn, Ive never noticed signs pointing to a train station. Probably because we dont have one here anymore but I will keep my eye out for them now. Parts are fun. Only down side about having them is if they are not properly stored and marked it becomes very hard to put them back to work.
The guy in Canada who bought your Rock Island caboose might be the same guy who bought my Rock Island gondola and crane & tender. He's somewhere in Ontario. He's deep into Rock Island rolling stock.
Hello Sir, Just found your channel, have been watching a few of your videos. Enjoyed them all. I have been into HO slot car’s since I was 8 years old. 68 now. Have been watching a lot of videos on HO train’s. Would like to get started by getting some old locomotives to take apart and service them. Any advice on which loco’s are easier to work on for Newbie’s. Really enjoy the way you explain how to work on them . TYIA -JC
Thanks for your kind words and support of my channel. All loco's are easy to work on. Find some inexpensive ones and dive in. Only way to learn is by doing. American Flyer S gauge is real easy to work on and run for ever.
Now I can dig into my 4 Bachmann F7/F9 that don't run, and get my 2 that barely run, to run better! I do have ONE that actually works great! I also have an F40PH (I think!) Bachmann Amtrak that runs but needs new traction bands. Yup, even my good working F9 will only pull 6 or so cars, without doing burnouts lol
I bought some reproduction 3d printed gears from eBay made of resin. You do need need to drill out the hole a little bit but other than that they work pretty well.
I have to admit when I was a kid and got these for Christmas.These boxed my locomotives.They went around the crack a few times and then over the back being they always broke and I smacked them over the back fence with the ball bat😅😅😅😅😅😅 hey i was a kid
What Id love to see, and if youve got a hankering for it, would be rebuilding the pancake motor/drive in a an old Bachmann 4-8-4 steam locomotive. I have a couple of the J-Class Norfolk and Western streamline 4-8-4s (both numbered 611) that are almost hopelessly gacked. I know they have the geared split axles (which are broken) and I'm pretty sure two of the motors were smoked like cheap cigars.... now, I can find 3D printed gears and axle centers, but the motors are mounted in such a way that Im afraid I'd break the housing trying to get them out of the frame., If I could watch someone that knew what they were doing take a crack at it, I might be inspired to give it a whirl myself!
Another fantastic video Ron! I was watching a few of your older videos and see you use the 1/4 ounce weights. I found mine at Harbor Freight but they are more rounded on the edges than yours. I like the look of yours better, where did you get them? Thanks Jeff.
I went down a rabbit hole trying to freshen up a Bachmann split chassis, pancake motor 0-6-0 last year and found that the old school slot car crowd runs a very similar armature, including a few versions of a ‘4 pole’ armature. I don’t know enough about little electric motors to know if it would be a possible replacement or swap, or if the “4 pole” variants would work as well or better for a smoother running locomotive. But to date it is the only possible ‘upgrade’ I have ever seen to these unfortunate little drivetrains.
These old Bachmann, TYCO, and Life Like style engines make great yard switchers for the modern era, because that's what most railroads use these older locos for now, and they don't need to pull a lot to do that.
Creative repair! If the tooth count were the same couldn't you pull the blue trucks pin out of the frame and ca it, or just pop it into the original frame? either that or find a wire of the correct diameter and make the repair?
The Bachmann idler axle friction fits into the truck body. The blue gear would have to be drilled out and friction fitted onto the original Bachmann idler shaft in order to work
@@classicmodeltrains I understand but can't you yank the axle from the blue gearset out of the housing and install it into the Backman? And just let it spin around it's original pin as designed? Or would it be too loose a fit?
Those ''pancake'' motors are a real pain in the ass to repair, I was toying with the idea for years to converting Bachmann locomotives into 'dummy' units, I would just gut that ''pancake'' out reinsert the wheels back into the motor housing and that's it problem solved no more headaches, Those Bachmann F7A'S units you ordered from E-Bay if i had them i would gladly convert them all to 'dummy' units.
I dont recall ever ordering any Bachmann F7A's off eBay. Some have been sent in from viewers though. I agree, all there good for is dummy units for sure
I have so far fixed 3 Kenmore vintage sewing machines with cracked gears using 2 part epoxy,and as I get back into N gauge Im sure Ill get more cracked gears,especially from stuff bought on Ebay.............
A feller on the UA-cams mixed CA glue with dental acrylic to fix those gear cracks. Another drilled out the body to accept a CD/DVD motor to improve torque. Back when CD's were a thing.
the chassis would have to be modified because the unpowered front truck goes in and mounts up differently. You would also have to find 2 power trucks that have electrical pickups on them already. Ball point pen spring would work if its outside diameter was the same and you cut it down quite a bit.
@@classicmodeltrains i built a nice golden eagle with two power torque drives and I put the slottcar magnets in it ...added alittle weight ..it can pull 30 cars like a boss ...I was thinking about doing that to a silver streak ...but do it with two mu-2 motors
I got a vintage bachmann F. unit in a lot And whoever owned it must have took very very good care of it Because the gears are not cracked and it still works like it was just released
I've consider using MEK solvent and a small clamp to close up the gear, but I haven't ever had the time to try it. The theory behind the MEK solvent would be to melt the gear back together due to the plastic composition. The gears are usually made of nylon or a slippery engineering plastic in which regular CA has a hard time binding to the plastic due to the smooth surface. This is the reason on trying a method of MEK solvent to melt the plastic back together. Also, if you ever tried to repair plastic handrails of certain manufactures, you may run into this problem of the plastic being a slippery engineering plastic which CA doesn't want to bind to. Hince the need to try a solvent type of glue over CA.
I have tried to CA some hand railings with no luck. yeah MEK sounds like a good thing to try. Seems like if it worked though we would all know about it by now. Just a thought.
The problem with melting the gear is the pressure pushing the gear together for the repair can then distort the gear at the join or damage the teeth :-(
The really weird thing is the cracked gears have been a thorn in the side of modelers all these years. Bachmann, Life-Like, Atlas and Athearns all have had issues with cracked gears no matter what kind of plastic used. I buy locos from the 80's and 90's (because that's what I can afford) and buy drive gears by the dozen to repair them. Do higher end locomotives have this issue? How about brass imports?
I wish I had higher end loco's to compare to. I wonder if storing them in a climate stable area prevents the cracking. Plastic and metal expand at different rates due to temperature. Ive visited with Fellers that say they have never encountered a cracked gar. I just received a brass import loco a few days ago. Old open frame motor. Will find out how good the gears are soon.
These “pancake” motors closely resemble the motor design that Aurora used in there 2nd generation “Model Motoring” slot cars. Now if that is the case, Auto World may have replacement brushes (and even the armature) for these motors. I wonder if the gears from those cars would work? Just a thought. Any way check them out. Fun video into the past, and a reminder why we got away from these “entry level” toy locomotives so darn quick.
Boaters should remember red, right easily. What leaving port and you must use channel markers, red and green, it is commonly taught to remember placement as red, right, return. That means what it says for the return trip by using all words that begin with "R". On the gears, since you will be drilling through plastic, a pin vice may work instead of purchasing a small drill press. Holding the pin vise squarely and rotating with your fingers, the drill bits should cut easily. Just let the drill do the work with light pressure. Also, ever get a bag of drone gears to see if the sizes you need are in the bag? Seems the sizes are not listed and it is a shot in the dark.
You Tuber elite 194 has a video on manufacturing your own Tyco\Life-Like gears from RC gears titled Fabricating gears for Bachmann and Life-Like model trains. You need a razor saw, a vice and he recommends a mini lathe (which is the show stopper for most of us) to drill the centre hole as hand drills can wander off centre.
Just tried this with a hand drill - the 18 tooth gear works OK (bit of wiggle room) but the 8 tooth has to be perfect or it 1. wobbles and jams the wheel gear or 2. the drilled out centre (being thin) splits and you are back to square one. The saw used to cut the gears into slices needs to be sharp and have a fine blade. I have yet to get a fully working replacement gear :-(@@classicmodeltrains
Order a bag of RC plastic gears, they come with multiple sizes included, many you'll never use but they have the idler gears and the ones you can press over the axle. I still have a pile of these old motors that run great but long ago the gears broke and disappeared. I did have some minor success with the crazy glue baking soda method and the cigarette ash with crazy glue method. Eventually those broke again, Bachman should be selling these old gear sets, the stupid board over there doesn't realize the millions they'd make lol.
They say most people's first Diesels were Bachmann's horrid ones like here. How cheap were these engines vs an Athearn Blue Box back in the 70s and 80s?
Hey there! While listening to your 'all videos' playlist, I was watching this one for like the 10th time, and just caught your comment 'remember what we used to call the diagonal cutters?". Wow that was funny. I sure do! A little story, the first dikes I ever got were little Weller-Xcelite for electronics in 1977 for six dollars. A friend said they were the best. Wow I thought, that was a rip off. But he was right. They still work today, and the spring still works. Can't say that about MANY others I got. Thanks for the funny!!
Thank you very much for the super thanks!! Just sitting down to play catch up on all the comments. I wish I still had a quality tool from 1977. That must be a real good set of Dikes for sure!!
You're like a mad scientist trying to labor over something the rest of us would have given up on. Always a pleasure watching you work to save those special locomotives Ron.
Thank you Norm :-)
I am so glad I'm not the only one that spent Super Bowl Sunday in the train room
Yup! Theres a few who dont partake in that ritual :-)
ron its locos like this is the reason alot of people stayed away from ho trains
You make a good point Greg, but the gears were not cracked when new. It takes years for this to happen. and on the flip side, it's inexpensive sets like these that got many young kids into model trains :-)
The hardest part.do not lose the springs u won't find them!Great Vid Ron u are the man!!
Thanks Christopher
Do what I did. Grow a mountain man style beard (Few more years the way I've been going it will be more a Santa Claus beard!), keep a comb on your workbench. I lost count of how many tiny springs, motor brush springs, Kadee springs, and so on, I've had get caught in my beard.
These are tough to repair…unless you have a video like this one to refer to!
Thanks for selecting this motor overhaul! 🚂
Glad to help
I had so many of those go bad on me over the years, even after proper maintenance . I couldn't find the right gears to replace and got fed up. I ended up going to Northwest Shortline and re-powered them all with their Stanton self motorized trucks. They work great now, so no more problems.
Holy smokes!!! I just looked at their pricing. $100 for one powered truck?! $50 for unpowered?! At that point, why not just buy new models? Not a criticism, just a genuine question. I am in a similar boat and looking for options, but this seems pricey.
Oh WOW!! Didnt know NWSL had a replacement power truck. Gunna have to look into that, THANKS!!
I've experienced a similar situation, converting about 16, Bachmann pancake motored 1990 trolleys, for use in other Subway cars....
It was a long hideous process, with many gears that were slipping on the axles.
On top of that I needed to insulate the motors to use DCC Decoders....
Yes good news regarding other drive units....
Tenshendo makes similar, compact powered trucks, almost exactly like NWSL, but much much cheaper.
You would need to order from them directly.
When my pancake powered units, start to go south, I'll power them with these new Tenshendo units, that have a similar wheelbase size.
I took you a year to produce, and me two days to watch it in entirety. Excellent fix!
Thanks John
I love listening to you talk, the white classic drop mat makes it easier to see you operating on hard to work on models much better than a dark mat like I've seen
Thank you Cuda, A few Fellers mention my voice as pleasant. To me I sound like Gilbert Godfry back in the old days :-)
Great video Ron. Mara Corday. 1957 movie the black scorpion
Nice job Norman! 2nd Feller to guess her correctly
@@classicmodeltrains I watch old movies love the black and whites
Congratulations my friend for your skills and unlimited patience! How do you ruin a beautiful locomotive? Put a Chinese pancake motor on her!
Thank you my friend :-)
Watched another video where a guy uses ca glue and baking soda to fixed them cracked gears. I just bought a old Bachmann Diesel Express train set with the good ole pancake motor. First one, so watching all the pancake motor maintenance/repair videos out there. Thanks for another good one Ron.
CA dont stick to them nylon gears. Nothing you can do to fix them
@@classicmodeltrains Thanks Ron
Your 40 years to late for me. I gave up on Bachmann along time ago. However, I'm glad to see you making an effort to fix thes beast. The best to you. BarstowRick Out.
Thanks Rick!
Cool repair! I’m not sure when it happened. But I heard Bachmann and lifelike came out of the same factory in China. That might explain why the motors look so similar.
I unfortunately watched the FB game. Cause there wasn’t a new model train repair video for Sunday.
I think I heard that as well but you know how rumors are.
Greetings Ron. I really hate these pancake engines. For the most part, I change all mechanics or convert to dummy locos. Another great video. Congratulations.
Thanks
I have a Bachmann GP40, same motor, same cracked gears. Was wondering about how to go about fixing it. You gave me a couple ideas. Thanks so much…
Good show by the way…
Glad I could help
I had that engine back in the early 90’s when I was a kid sold it at auction in 2015 , I love that you hate Bachmans lol
Dang Bachmanns anyway
Great video Mr . Ron . I have an old Life-Like 4-6 2 steamer that still runs great . But i'm not doing to good at guessing the classic models : ( I had guessed Groucho Marx dang it !
Thanks. The steamers have lots better drive gears in them.
I guessed Gummo Marx.
I was WAY OFF.
Great video Ron. I like how you thought about the next guy (glue). Thank You
Glad you enjoyed it
The first HO train set that I got when I was 7 years old came with a Bachman F7 with the pancake motor. I usually dislike Bachmann pancake motors, and usually convert engines that are equipped with them into static scenery items or dummy units, but by some stroke of luck, that engine ran smoothly for my entire childhood, and I believe the chassis and motor are still in my parts bin, with the motor still functional.
Nice to hear you had a good one that didnt let you down :-)
Excellent video Ron
Glad you enjoyed it Joe
At 6:42 I said the same exact thing when I saw what happened!!!
:-)
Excellent repair video, Ron!
I think EVERY HO gauge hobbyist owns at least one Tyco Loco requiring a complete teardown as described in this video!
Please keep up the fine work! 🚂
Thanks Joseph
Another great rebuild. Those pancake motors are a pain in the ***. Almost every one that I have owned ends up burning up the armature. Good to see you getting these running again.
Thanks John 👍
Great video and insight as always. I’ve learned a lot from watching your videos over the last few months. I only got back into the hobby in November. Thanks for sharing your ingenuity.
Thank you David. Glad to see you back in the hobby
Hello Ron I hope the stuff I sent you made it in one peace and I hope you can enjoy it you make great videos and I try to watch them all thanks 👍
Hello Charlie, Yes it did. You did not leave me a return address or a way to get ahold of you. I'm glad you reached out here. Remember you can go into the description of all my video's and find all my contact information. That brass Tenshodo was quite the surprise!!
@@classicmodeltrains sorry about that next time I'll remember to do that. Glad you can enjoy them 👍
I have a Life-Like and a Bachmann pancake motor. Great video, now I can fix them up.
Right on
Hey there, thanks for another great video. I’m glad I’m not the only one to shelf a project for a year or two.
Thanks for watching Silver T. Yup....I got tired of looking at it and apparently loosing parts for it :-)
We have the same motors in our Palitoy/Mainline diesels. Cracked gears-a-go-go! The Amazon have packets of random, plastic gears, cheap, for modelling. Two packs got me enough to fix a "Warship" class 42. So far, no issues. Classic vid Ron! Keep 'em comin'.
Thanks for the info!
They were all made by Kader in Hong Kong with appropriate branding, hence the mechanical identical-ness. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kader_Group
The best thing these pancake systems are good for is kit-bashing two of them together to make one all-wheel pickup lighted dummy. Works in DC and DCC, and as a bonus, I sometimes have used them as converters with a horn-hook coupler on one side and a knuckle couple on the other side. (edited to include that it's a "lighted" dummy)
Yup!
I wired two FP40s together back to back to make them 4 wheel pick-up too. Still works after 5 years😀
Hi Ron.
Thanks for the info. I have a few of these to work on, now I know what to look for.
Good video, working on an Army set today, wish me luck...lol.
Cheers
Good luck on your army set!!
Good episode Ron🚂🇨🇦🇺🇲🙋
Thank you
Thanks for all your great work, working with these Bachmann pancake Motor units!
One year ago, I unpacked 16, 1990s era trolleys, with pancake motors.
This with the idea of powering, my 50 year old subway cars
Through the long hideous, miserable process, with slipping gears, and then trying to convert them to DCC by insulating the metal motor housings.
I re powered about 12 subway cars.
Leaving a few Bachmann spare pancake motors.
New good news though...
Tenshendo makes powered trucks of various sizes, very similar to NWSL, but much cheaper.
I'll be using, and modifying them, to replace the pancake drives.
Thanks again for your excellent video!
Wow Larry! Sounds like you know how to do some cool fabrication there :-)
@@classicmodeltrains Yeah Ron; I did not know what I was getting into originally, with these pancake motors.
It took several months of concentration, to both convert, and get up and running decently, on DCC.
Repairing many slipping gears, and insulating the motor, in the process.
As always; Great videos Ron!
Thank you Ron for another excellent video on repair and maintenance of model trains. I avoid the pancake drive types when possible yet some have found their way into the collection over the years. I intend to reference your video as my guide for disassembly and repair of those that have the tell tale click. Your channel is a inspiration for those who would otherwise shun the train set type locomotives. There is hope that even they can be brought back to mainline service. .....and yes, I spent my Sunday Night lubing Roco or Athearn mechanisms and running double headers on the 4x8 in the basement. Please keep on making these videos. Best wishes, George
Thanks George. I'm finding out a lot of us were in the train room on Sunday :-)
Another very informative vlog Ron, you are a great resource for the hobby, always interesting and fun, you always make my day, and Im sure many others feel the same. A very nice man in a very nice hobby! Thanks as always, regards, Joe
Thank you very much Joe for that nice compliment!
This reminds me of watch repair..lol..but still very informative!…enjoyed watching as always
Thanks Thomas
Hi Ron the British rail class 42 warship diesel and the class 45 diesel from mainline have the same motor and there is a seller on eBay that makes 3D printed replacement gear's for these motors and Peter's spares in the UK makes replacement motor brushes for these as well, and a good video Ron
Thanks for the good info Kevin!
Very good job on fixing that loco! I have the same loco but the shell on it is not in the best condition an the gears on it looked pretty good and thats cool that you put a life like motor into the bachmann one.
The motors are basically the same matt.
Thanks
@@christopherdelgaudio9484 yeah I know and @classicmodeltrains anytime!
Holy crap!!! Who knew???
Great video and happy birthday a year ago, at some point😂
Hey, I dated Mara Corday at a USO thingy years ago, NOT 😂
You real are great, gotta love this stuff. Thanks, Ron
Thank you Ron!
Great job on that fix. I thought maybe you would have changed out the cracked gears with some kinda 3D printed ones. Cheers from eastern TN
Thanks. I dont trust 3D printed gears
You really worked hard to get that locomotive to run. I would have enjoyed it, if it weren't for foul language! lol. It was another fine video. Thanks Ron.
Thanks
Great job and awesome information about how similar both manufacturers really are and I also have lots of the Bachman locos with those annoying tics it’s such a shame they made them so inferior like that.
Thanks. Yes it is too bad Bachmann gears are so brittle.
This is just fantastic and so useful Ron. It is a shame the pancake motor was so poorly presented to North American modellers as when done correctly they can achieve an amazing performance. Fleischmann's one was the best HO drive worldwide for decades until Kato motors came along.
I would love to run into a Fleischmann's or Kato power truck. I bet they are real nice.
The Fleischmann one even had an automatic oiling feature built into it. @@classicmodeltrains
Years back I called and complained (when you could still do that) to someone at Bachmann about those pancake motors being junk... the lady I talked to sounded kind of mad and said "Well, if properly maintained, they should work just fiine!" Oh, really?😂😂😂
Another great video Ron! I have avoided HO Bachmann locomotives and only have two I think one Prairie steam loco and an old metal frame F Unit. I do have a number of Bachmann N scale F units and they suffer from broken gearing. Bachmann USA sucks will not by anymore. British Bachmann seems to have avoided the gear issues.
Yup! Dang them Bachmann executives from the 80's
Great video as usual, always learning new stuff! Btw, when are you doing a video review of your shelves? They look great and I’m sure I could learn something before trying to mount some myself!
Thank you and I have a video on how to make them shelves. Heres the link. ua-cam.com/video/8FFBv8gGuW4/v-deo.html
Hi Ron, great video. If you have one good idler gear you can just leave the other one out but make sure you put two wheels with traction tires on the axel side with the good one. It pulls great and sounds great. Don’t lose that good idler gear because they are rare as hen’s teeth.
Thanks. Im gunna guard that good idler real good. Maybe some day I will find another one :-)
Thank you for sharing.👍
Thanks for watching
Good one Ron…I’m actually familiar with the pancake motors from working on the Aurora slot cars. Looks like the same setup.
Thank you and yeah there very similar for sure.
Thank you for sharing your techniques! I shared with the Nscale Highrail group that focuses on getting older nscale to run, many have pancake motors in them! Smaller of course but hoping the principles are the same.
N scale high rail? whats that? the old stuff with the large wheel flanges?
I have 3 bachmann Shays and all now have split gears. I have two f units that I made into twin power truck locomotives. Those still have good gears.
a 50/50 mix of good and bad.
Great vid right to the end.
Thanks Patrick
I’ve been collecting both Bachmann and Life-Like pancake motors for a while. I’ve resurrected a few Bachmanns by manually boring the Life-Like gears out. Still working on a better way to do it. For my next project, I’m going to Frankenstein two motors on one chassis!
Very cool!
Hey Ron, Another Super Video. Have you looked for possible new replacement brushes?
Thanks Jeff. No I have not needed any replacement brushes yet. Guess my parts loco stash has provided all I need so far
You could also use Penguin 3D Workshop's replacement gears (I used it on my ATSF U36B)
Ive yet to see a 3D print gear work or last
Rock Island did field some U33Bs in their "Bankruptcy Blue" livery. They had the AAR pattern trucks rather than the bloomberg style on the Bachmann models.
"Bankruptcy Blue" is my third favorite railway livery, right behind BC Rail's Two-tone green and Great Northern's "Big Sky Blue" livery.
This blue reminds me of the powder blue tuxedos from the 70's
I like the Athearn blue box engines. They are easier to work on and more durable. They don't need any sound decoder either as their gears make more than enough noise on their own. Interesting repair.
Yes the BB are a lot nicer product for sure
Comment time: Good to see you could remove the cover from the bottom of the trucks. Don't know how many of those I've broken. The broken gear is a Curse from the Train Gods, Just found one on an axel/gear. When I removed the wheel and axel assembly, gear came out in two pieces. Was thinking during your video (yes, I think sometimes) You should have a fair supply of parts. It is interesting how so many trains and parts are similar, but different. Could be attributed to better engineering or Patents. F unites, so many and have you ever noticed. If there is a sign directing you to a Train Station, they use a silhouette of the front of a F unite. Thanks for the Video, you made my day. (I skipped the Super Bowl too)
Hello Lynn, Ive never noticed signs pointing to a train station. Probably because we dont have one here anymore but I will keep my eye out for them now. Parts are fun. Only down side about having them is if they are not properly stored and marked it becomes very hard to put them back to work.
The guy in Canada who bought your Rock Island caboose might be the same guy who bought my Rock Island gondola and crane & tender. He's somewhere in Ontario. He's deep into Rock Island rolling stock.
His name is Stu.
Hello Sir, Just found your channel, have been watching a few of your videos. Enjoyed them all. I have been into HO slot car’s since I was 8 years old. 68 now. Have been watching a lot of videos on HO train’s. Would like to get started by getting some old locomotives to take apart and service them. Any advice on which loco’s are easier to work on for Newbie’s. Really enjoy the way you explain how to work on them . TYIA -JC
Thanks for your kind words and support of my channel. All loco's are easy to work on. Find some inexpensive ones and dive in. Only way to learn is by doing. American Flyer S gauge is real easy to work on and run for ever.
@@classicmodeltrains TY
I got me a fiberglass pencil, some Superlube and conducting grease...I'm all ready to repair engines!
Right on :-)
Great videos! Is the classic model Mara Corday?
Nice job Randy!!
Do you ever install dcc decoder in the old unit? Can you do a video on a install if you do.trying to learn how to do it. Love your videos .
I have a Tyco Pacific I did a video on installing DCC into it.
@classicmodeltrains thanks found it . Your awesome.
Now I can dig into my 4 Bachmann F7/F9 that don't run, and get my 2 that barely run, to run better! I do have ONE that actually works great! I also have an F40PH (I think!) Bachmann Amtrak that runs but needs new traction bands. Yup, even my good working F9 will only pull 6 or so cars, without doing burnouts lol
New traction tires can be found on the eBay
I bought some reproduction 3d printed gears from eBay made of resin. You do need need to drill out the hole a little bit but other than that they work pretty well.
Cool, glad you found something that worked for you!
I have to admit when I was a kid and got these for Christmas.These boxed my locomotives.They went around the crack a few times and then over the back being they always broke and I smacked them over the back fence with the ball bat😅😅😅😅😅😅 hey i was a kid
Its too bad these companies made such junk back in the days
13:19 I hear the prototype blowing for a crossing!
Yes, tracks just half mile away from me.
Tinkering with these junk piles can be fun I suppose but you can’t make a silk purse out of a pigs ear. Nice video enjoyed it thanks !
Ive been hearing that phrase quite a bit on this video :-)
What Id love to see, and if youve got a hankering for it, would be rebuilding the pancake motor/drive in a an old Bachmann 4-8-4 steam locomotive. I have a couple of the J-Class Norfolk and Western streamline 4-8-4s (both numbered 611) that are almost hopelessly gacked. I know they have the geared split axles (which are broken) and I'm pretty sure two of the motors were smoked like cheap cigars.... now, I can find 3D printed gears and axle centers, but the motors are mounted in such a way that Im afraid I'd break the housing trying to get them out of the frame., If I could watch someone that knew what they were doing take a crack at it, I might be inspired to give it a whirl myself!
Oddly I have one of those on it’s way to me for repairs and a video production. 3 weeks to a month there should be a video out on it.
@@classicmodeltrains can't wait!
Another fantastic video Ron! I was watching a few of your older videos and see you use the 1/4 ounce weights. I found mine at Harbor Freight but they are more rounded on the edges than yours. I like the look of yours better, where did you get them? Thanks Jeff.
I got them from the amazon. Bought a 10 lb little brick of them
Thanks!
I went down a rabbit hole trying to freshen up a Bachmann split chassis, pancake motor 0-6-0 last year and found that the old school slot car crowd runs a very similar armature, including a few versions of a ‘4 pole’ armature. I don’t know enough about little electric motors to know if it would be a possible replacement or swap, or if the “4 pole” variants would work as well or better for a smoother running locomotive. But to date it is the only possible ‘upgrade’ I have ever seen to these unfortunate little drivetrains.
Yea, I wish there was a way to do something to them
These old Bachmann, TYCO, and Life Like style engines make great yard switchers for the modern era, because that's what most railroads use these older locos for now, and they don't need to pull a lot to do that.
Sounds like a good idea to me :-)
Could you do a vid on how you use your Ultrasonic cleaner for model trains?
Well I have talked about it in a lot of my video's. I cant video while its running. The ultrasonic messes with the audio real bad.
@@classicmodeltrains You use degreaser in a ziplock , right?
Creative repair! If the tooth count were the same couldn't you pull the blue trucks pin out of the frame and ca it, or just pop it into the original frame? either that or find a wire of the correct diameter and make the repair?
The Bachmann idler axle friction fits into the truck body. The blue gear would have to be drilled out and friction fitted onto the original Bachmann idler shaft in order to work
@@classicmodeltrains I understand but can't you yank the axle from the blue gearset out of the housing and install it into the Backman? And just let it spin around it's original pin as designed? Or would it be too loose a fit?
@@greg0063 the blue gear axle would wobble around in the bachmann truck assembly. Could cause it to bind up and break something.
@@classicmodeltrains wow that loose!, I see.
Those ''pancake'' motors are a real pain in the ass to repair, I was toying with the idea for years to converting Bachmann locomotives into 'dummy' units, I would just gut that ''pancake'' out reinsert the wheels back into the motor housing and that's it problem solved
no more headaches, Those Bachmann F7A'S units you ordered from E-Bay if i had them i would gladly convert them all to 'dummy' units.
I dont recall ever ordering any Bachmann F7A's off eBay. Some have been sent in from viewers though. I agree, all there good for is dummy units for sure
@@classicmodeltrains Thanks once again for your reply.
I have so far fixed 3 Kenmore vintage sewing machines with cracked gears using 2 part epoxy,and as I get back into N gauge Im sure Ill get more cracked gears,especially from stuff bought on Ebay.............
Right on!
Hi Ron, are those motor brushes easy to get more of? Maybe McMaster-Carr sells them?
I dont know if they are or not. I would assume its pretty tough to get new ones. I get my extra brushes from parts loco's
A feller on the UA-cams mixed CA glue with dental acrylic to fix those gear cracks.
Another drilled out the body to accept a CD/DVD motor to improve torque. Back when CD's were a thing.
Dental Acrylic? Wonder where you can get that from? I ve seen the CD motor in a tyco power torque truck video. That was pretty cool
@@classicmodeltrains
He was a retired dentist, so inside job. I looked it up. You have to buy a 5# bag $$$$$$. Or, be nice to your dentist.
Could you make one of these with two motors???and could you use a pen spring on the brushes in a pinch 😮
the chassis would have to be modified because the unpowered front truck goes in and mounts up differently. You would also have to find 2 power trucks that have electrical pickups on them already. Ball point pen spring would work if its outside diameter was the same and you cut it down quite a bit.
@@classicmodeltrains i built a nice golden eagle with two power torque drives and I put the slottcar magnets in it ...added alittle weight ..it can pull 30 cars like a boss ...I was thinking about doing that to a silver streak ...but do it with two mu-2 motors
I have one of these, Bachmann F unit; cracked gear, maybe some other things wrong with it... maybe i'll send it to you
I have a pile of broken Bachmann F units. the shipping would cost more than the loco is worth, but thanks for the offer :-)
WOW - what an ordeal. Never say never.😁
I took the long way around :-)
That for showing us how to get these backup and running. 33%
Thanks for watching
That classy model is my wife, where did you get that picture from?
Hired Eddy Valient to get it for me ;-)
Hey there Ron, here's a question for you: Do you prefer Labelle 107 or 108 for your repairs?
I'm using the 108. Only reason is it's what the hobby store had when I needed some light synthetic oil. :-)
@@classicmodeltrains Thanks. I thought that was spelled "erl".
I got a vintage bachmann F. unit in a lot And whoever owned it must have took very very good care of it Because the gears are not cracked and it still works like it was just released
Right on!!
I've consider using MEK solvent and a small clamp to close up the gear, but I haven't ever had the time to try it. The theory behind the MEK solvent would be to melt the gear back together due to the plastic composition. The gears are usually made of nylon or a slippery engineering plastic in which regular CA has a hard time binding to the plastic due to the smooth surface. This is the reason on trying a method of MEK solvent to melt the plastic back together. Also, if you ever tried to repair plastic handrails of certain manufactures, you may run into this problem of the plastic being a slippery engineering plastic which CA doesn't want to bind to. Hince the need to try a solvent type of glue over CA.
I have tried to CA some hand railings with no luck. yeah MEK sounds like a good thing to try. Seems like if it worked though we would all know about it by now. Just a thought.
The problem with melting the gear is the pressure pushing the gear together for the repair can then distort the gear at the join or damage the teeth :-(
Thanks. I just got rid of four of them cheaply because they didn't work correctly.
:-)
The really weird thing is the cracked gears have been a thorn in the side of modelers all these years. Bachmann, Life-Like, Atlas and Athearns all have had issues with cracked gears no matter what kind of plastic used. I buy locos from the 80's and 90's (because that's what I can afford) and buy drive gears by the dozen to repair them. Do higher end locomotives have this issue? How about brass imports?
I wish I had higher end loco's to compare to. I wonder if storing them in a climate stable area prevents the cracking. Plastic and metal expand at different rates due to temperature. Ive visited with Fellers that say they have never encountered a cracked gar. I just received a brass import loco a few days ago. Old open frame motor. Will find out how good the gears are soon.
I have a few of these Bachmanns, they work great except for the broken gears. I can’t believe no one manufactures replacements.
I hear ya Dan
These “pancake” motors closely resemble the motor design that Aurora used in there 2nd generation “Model Motoring” slot cars. Now if that is the case, Auto World may have replacement brushes (and even the armature) for these motors. I wonder if the gears from those cars would work? Just a thought. Any way check them out. Fun video into the past, and a reminder why we got away from these “entry level” toy locomotives so darn quick.
Many Fellers have mentioned the similarities with the slot car motors and these. Ive never seen a slot car bigger than the 1/87th scale ones
Boaters should remember red, right easily. What leaving port and you must use channel markers, red and green, it is commonly taught to remember placement as red, right, return. That means what it says for the return trip by using all words that begin with "R". On the gears, since you will be drilling through plastic, a pin vice may work instead of purchasing a small drill press. Holding the pin vise squarely and rotating with your fingers, the drill bits should cut easily. Just let the drill do the work with light pressure. Also, ever get a bag of drone gears to see if the sizes you need are in the bag? Seems the sizes are not listed and it is a shot in the dark.
Cool info.
For gears maybe have new ones 3D printed. Otherwise Peters Spares in the UK maybe have them?
Ive done 2 video's on 3D printed gears. they are not the answer we hope they can be.
I've heard of ringfield motors .
I have not. What are they?
You Tuber elite 194 has a video on manufacturing your own Tyco\Life-Like gears from RC gears titled Fabricating gears for Bachmann and Life-Like model trains.
You need a razor saw, a vice and he recommends a mini lathe (which is the show stopper for most of us) to drill the centre hole as hand drills can wander off centre.
Dang!I was all looking forward to seeing this until the word mini lathe. I do want one though. Just have to find a good American made one
Just tried this with a hand drill - the 18 tooth gear works OK (bit of wiggle room) but the 8 tooth has to be perfect or it 1. wobbles and jams the wheel gear or 2. the drilled out centre (being thin) splits and you are back to square one.
The saw used to cut the gears into slices needs to be sharp and have a fine blade.
I have yet to get a fully working replacement gear :-(@@classicmodeltrains
Order a bag of RC plastic gears, they come with multiple sizes included, many you'll never use but they have the idler gears and the ones you can press over the axle. I still have a pile of these old motors that run great but long ago the gears broke and disappeared. I did have some minor success with the crazy glue baking soda method and the cigarette ash with crazy glue method. Eventually those broke again, Bachman should be selling these old gear sets, the stupid board over there doesn't realize the millions they'd make lol.
Yes I wished somebody would make replacement Bachmann gears
They say most people's first Diesels were Bachmann's horrid ones like here. How cheap were these engines vs an Athearn Blue Box back in the 70s and 80s?
I hear BB loco's went for $25 I believe. The Bachmann starter sets these came in were $35 for the whole set. They would work just fine for a few years
@@classicmodeltrains Dang I bought my F7 used back in 2010 for $20.
Does anyone sell parts for these pancake motors ?
No. Have to use used parts from cannibalized loco's
I'll by a cheapy bachmann if it's only a couple of dollars. If it's no good, it becomes a dummy unit or track filler for siding.
I hear ya there. Always some sorta use for them.
Feed the algorithm comment👍
Thanks for feeding the Monster :-)
I think it's Ava Gardner, but I'm really guessing on this one.
Oh, dear. Fail this week.
This gal is a bit tougher than most to know.
I guess so. I never heard the name before.@@classicmodeltrains
Time to go to a different engine transmission setup
I agree