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 Posted - March 10 2015 : 10:38:28 PM
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Has anyone else taken a Bachmann with a Kader chassis and put DCC in it? I took mine apart a few days ago, and it looks fairly easy. The motor had two small contact brackets that you just take off the spring plates for the two brushes, and it isolates the motor nicely. VERY nice design! I took the motor apart at work yesterday and cleaned up the armature pads and brushes, cleaned out the grooves (stuffed with junk ), and it turns over nicely now.
The dreaded zinc pest is present, but only in the top weight plate. The whole chassis I don't see a crack in it, but the top plate is bowed up, and not holding the motor down like it should, and does have cracks present. So at least the frame looks OK. Whew! The Auto Train has been on my list of projects to get completed , one of my top 5 this year. I also bought an Athearn Auto-Train diesel, but since I have this one handy, I'm going to try to get it going digitally first. I have a few other Kader chassis's around, not sure if the parts are interchangeable.
Anyway, the motor seems to run respectably now that it's cleaned up and lubed again. Going to have to figure out how to hold it down now. Also the two press-on plastic slip-sleeve universal joints aren't holding, both on either side are turning on the motor shafts when I took the motor out. So need to fix THAT as well, or it won't go anywhere fast ( or at all ). I'm really beginning to despise the press-on design that is so prevalent these days, or back then, once the plastic cracks or gets loose, there's no way to hold it on. I miss the splined shafts or squared ends that would not strip easily.
So, a few pictures :
 
The shell looks very nice. And very surprised how well the motor design allows isolation compared to many other designs. We'll see how it works, once I get it going. The mechanical clean and lube was easy, as the DCC installation should be. The universal joint problem will be the next issue I have to deal with before anything moves further (literally ). But at least moving it in the right direction. 
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Country:  USA ~
Posts: 3974 ~
Member Since: January 04 2009 ~
Last Visit: January 11 2019
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