In response to your "Jet Motor' tune up, I would like to state first that your procedure is sound and I agree with everything you said and did in tuning that motor. However I would like to place a few caveats and a suggestion as well. First the suggestion. I find it very helpful when tuning Athearn Blue Box motors that by applying a small piece of electrical tape on the housing removes all possibilities of shorting to occur during testing. Once you are done, simply remove the tape and discard. Now the caveats. To be clear and make this understandable for anyone reading, I categorize these motors. The first is the same one you used which has the Gray colored housing. These are the first generation of motors of this style that were produced for Athearn locomotives. They first arrivals came 'Without' Flywheels. They were later upgraded to include bronze centered flywheels that were of the same color as the motor, which did as you stated prevent the model from stopping quickly (on a dime) and provided some coasting to a stop which was more prototypical. Whether or not the flywheels are present I deem them A-1. The second motor is the Gold colored housing with matching brass flywheels. These came with some minor improvements internally and were the mainstay for many years to come. These are deemed A-2. Lastly, is the current version of motors still used to this day on their ready to roll locomotives. Although they also come in the 'Gold' standard of housing / flywheel color (which makes them more difficult to differentiate from the prior version) I refer to them as A-3. You have shown and proved that it is very possible to tune the A-1 for better performance and lower current draw, Personally I would never recommend using the A-1 for DCC for any project beyond the locomotive in which it sits. They are unsuitable for DCC beyond that due to their tendency to draw high amperage, so if they are consisted in a two, three or four string of locomotives, regardless of type such as can motors or even the Blue Box knockoff that Life-Like uses in their Proto 2000 series, you are just tempting fate and rolling the dice to high amp draw and total system failure until that unit is removed. This is especially true whenever these motors are powering very heavy trains.
very well said! I do not use these for my own DCC, but I do have some Proto's that are not mine and have the gold motor. they don't test that well and on the pair of SD60s I replaced them because I know what job those have to do. I think we've shown that it is possible to tune them up, but as you've pointed out - a consist is going to draw an unacceptable amount of power!
There are helicopters quieter than that motor... Another cool video. I always learn something new. The laser trick is great. It will help me find those springs that I lose from time to time. When this happens I had not succeeded either by looking for them with a flashlight, or by sweeping the ground , so far. I thought there was a portal to another dimension in my house. Skinwalker 2, maybe...
@@elite194 LOL .... I was referring to the spring on the floor. I have a radio antenna that you stretch out with a magnet on the end and it grabs stuff on the floor for me 🤣
This is where your 1-2-3 blocks could come in handy. Connect the power supply Negative to the block, build a JIG to hold the motor to the block with the NEG contact touching the 1-2-3 block, and only have to mess with connecting the positive wire to the motor. Then build different JIGs for the different motors.
flywheels aren't worth the trouble these days - even perfect Timewells are ancient tech. Digital momentum is far superior. I've also put them in the lathe to make them true which is even easier than balancing them!
Those motor clips are interchangeable. When I DCC an Athearn motor I mash down the tabs from the bottom clip, and then install it on the top. The top clip goes on the bottom. Probably overkill, but that's my story and I'm stuck with it.
I can see possibly brasso as a rubbing compound and a polishing compound, but cleaning that by hand would be a tough job. at the same time, we should try that and see if it does make a difference! it can always get cleaned in the ultrasonic. we could also try cutting the spring in half because that is another urban legend that is still out there!
I got "star cap" green lasers a few years ago on amazon - this is that laser with the star cap unscrewed. but a green laser level or laser marker is even easier to use for finding parts that have been sucked into the floor void!
In response to your "Jet Motor' tune up, I would like to state first that your procedure is sound and I agree with everything you said and did in tuning that motor. However I would like to place a few caveats and a suggestion as well. First the suggestion. I find it very helpful when tuning Athearn Blue Box motors that by applying a small piece of electrical tape on the housing removes all possibilities of shorting to occur during testing. Once you are done, simply remove the tape and discard. Now the caveats. To be clear and make this understandable for anyone reading, I categorize these motors. The first is the same one you used which has the Gray colored housing. These are the first generation of motors of this style that were produced for Athearn locomotives. They first arrivals came 'Without' Flywheels. They were later upgraded to include bronze centered flywheels that were of the same color as the motor, which did as you stated prevent the model from stopping quickly (on a dime) and provided some coasting to a stop which was more prototypical. Whether or not the flywheels are present I deem them A-1. The second motor is the Gold colored housing with matching brass flywheels. These came with some minor improvements internally and were the mainstay for many years to come. These are deemed A-2. Lastly, is the current version of motors still used to this day on their ready to roll locomotives. Although they also come in the 'Gold' standard of housing / flywheel color (which makes them more difficult to differentiate from the prior version) I refer to them as A-3. You have shown and proved that it is very possible to tune the A-1 for better performance and lower current draw, Personally I would never recommend using the A-1 for DCC for any project beyond the locomotive in which it sits. They are unsuitable for DCC beyond that due to their tendency to draw high amperage, so if they are consisted in a two, three or four string of locomotives, regardless of type such as can motors or even the Blue Box knockoff that Life-Like uses in their Proto 2000 series, you are just tempting fate and rolling the dice to high amp draw and total system failure until that unit is removed. This is especially true whenever these motors are powering very heavy trains.
very well said! I do not use these for my own DCC, but I do have some Proto's that are not mine and have the gold motor. they don't test that well and on the pair of SD60s I replaced them because I know what job those have to do. I think we've shown that it is possible to tune them up, but as you've pointed out - a consist is going to draw an unacceptable amount of power!
There are helicopters quieter than that motor... Another cool video. I always learn something new. The laser trick is great. It will help me find those springs that I lose from time to time. When this happens I had not succeeded either by looking for them with a flashlight, or by sweeping the ground , so far. I thought there was a portal to another dimension in my house. Skinwalker 2, maybe...
yes the green laser finds all manner of hidden things lost on the floor!
Lucky you didn't have carpet! Good en!
these motors show how they can almost always be fixed up, unless there was a melt-down!
I have the old school radio antenna with a magnet on the end .... or got on my hands and knee's with a pair of readers on!!! 🤣
nice! I assume you mean the old Pittman motors. those are still in production almost 100 years later.... I've got a bin full of them!
@@elite194 LOL .... I was referring to the spring on the floor. I have a radio antenna that you stretch out with a magnet on the end and it grabs stuff on the floor for me 🤣
understood!!
This is where your 1-2-3 blocks could come in handy. Connect the power supply Negative to the block, build a JIG to hold the motor to the block with the NEG contact touching the 1-2-3 block, and only have to mess with connecting the positive wire to the motor. Then build different JIGs for the different motors.
I had not thought about using these block for electrical! that opens up a whole new realm of uses!
Only other thing you could do is balance the flywheels. Cheers from eastern TN
flywheels aren't worth the trouble these days - even perfect Timewells are ancient tech. Digital momentum is far superior. I've also put them in the lathe to make them true which is even easier than balancing them!
Those motor clips are interchangeable. When I DCC an Athearn motor I mash down the tabs from the bottom clip, and then install it on the top. The top clip goes on the bottom. Probably overkill, but that's my story and I'm stuck with it.
I don't cut the tabs either, a small hammer flattens them right out!
And add a piece of Kapton tape for extra safety.
After swapping them I use one tab to solder to after bending it in a little loop and cut the other one off. Cheers - eastern TN
I have seen train guys and even the slot car guys go as fare as using polishing compound on a armature . Does that really help ?
I can see possibly brasso as a rubbing compound and a polishing compound, but cleaning that by hand would be a tough job. at the same time, we should try that and see if it does make a difference! it can always get cleaned in the ultrasonic. we could also try cutting the spring in half because that is another urban legend that is still out there!
@@elite194 That would be interesting to see. Oh and they used a dremel with a fiber wheel and compound.
I might do it on the lathe to go as overboard as possible
Where can I get your revolution one motor??? Happy New Year
send me an email from the contact on the main page!
This is about a motor replacement, not a parts finder.
anytime you work on a blue box jet motor there is a better than 50% chance you will also be trying to find parts on the floor!
@@elite194 exactly, but we all can do that without a video describing the process.
The laser he bought from salvage of the Hubble Telescope.
those green lasers are from the future!
Where did you get the green laser?
I got "star cap" green lasers a few years ago on amazon - this is that laser with the star cap unscrewed. but a green laser level or laser marker is even easier to use for finding parts that have been sucked into the floor void!
Jet 400 motor
yuup that's the guy!!! and now he's better than he was, but I don't really know what to do with him....