'Pancake' Motor Brushes

[Len]

Are brushes for the old Bachmann 'pancake' motors still available?? I didn't see them listed in the parts section. Or should I just cut down some old Athearn open frame motor brushes and use them?

And please don't tell to replace the loco. It was mine when I was a kid, then went to my kid, and now my Grandson says, "My diesel"! The only thing wrong with it is the brushes have worn down to the point they don't make good contact any more.

Len

[union pacific 844]

 if you can use the old Athearn  go for it  i would  some one has to keep the old trains going

[sd24b]

Are brushes for the old Bachmann 'pancake' motors still available?? I didn't see them listed in the parts section. Or should I just cut down some old Athearn open frame motor brushes and use them?

And please don't tell to replace the loco. It was mine when I was a kid, then went to my kid, and now my Grandson says, "My diesel"! The only thing wrong with it is the brushes have worn down to the point they don't make good contact any more.

Len

Many years ago I tried to repair one of those pancake motors.  LOL  Didn't  last to long.  Could never get the proper tension on the brushes.  Good luck Phil

[richg]

Good chance you can find these motors on ebay. I have seen them there. Bachmann stop selling them some years ago for a good reason.

Rich

[blf]

My local hobbyshop salesmen showed me a repair job he did on a N gauge engine by turning down some Athearn brushes and used a coupler spring for tension. It worked like brand new. You got nothing to lose. Bill

[Len]

Since it seems pretty obvious from the responses these brushes aren't available any more, I went the 'cut down' route.

The Athearn brush diameter was slightly undersize, so I used brushes for old Lionel whistle motors instead. I cut them a hair long with a Zona saw, then ran them across 1200 grit wet/dry paper to fine tune the length. About 1/32in short of the brush tube top seems to give the right tension to the brush springs/retainers without loading the motor shaft down.

While I had the clips off, and the brushes out, I used a toothpick to clean out the commutator slots. Put everything back together and grandpa's little engineer's "My Diesel" is running fine once again (at least for now).

Len