Lionel 182 Crane Armature Maintenance Thursday, May 02, 2002 6:01 AM Jerry Dobbs

Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2002 09:05:54 -0700 (PDT) From: Scott Holm Subject: Lionel 182 crane armature update

I told the story of my Lionel 182 crane armature that was virtually destroyed by over-oiling (probably WD-40.) Got some good suggestions from Tom Jarcho, which are going to work out. I tried searching for a replacement armature at the train show, but the guys that are usually there with Lionel motor parts weren't there (York?)

I connected the transformer leads directly to the commutators, turning the transformer up until the shorted areas between the plates in the bakelite started to light up. I carved these out with a knife until no more shorts occurred; one was right near the shaft. Also soaked it in solvent to remove whatever oil was still left on the surfaces. When I measured the resistance between the plates, two of the plates were 1.9 Ohms from each other and the other two readings were about 9 Ohms. The reason for this was identified as bad solder joints. I guess the heat must have melted the solder off. I soldered them and tried the armature out and it works great in both directions. Before I put the whole thing back together I'm going to fill in the holes with epoxy, to keep it from falling apart.

Thanks to Tom for the advice and thanks also to Bob Hannon for the information about the problems with WD-40 on armatures and a possible source for replacements.