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to 12V coreless motor

KASTENLOK INDEX

Graham Farish Pannier

(Also 4F, Battle of Britain & others)

Fits on many, many other Graham Farish models with a similar motor design. If you are going to try this on your own, not listed model, be aware that there is one alternative upgrade. That one is for more commonly seen chassis. The only difference between the kits is the size of the worm. If you are in doubt, get the GF Standard upgrade kit and purchase the Tramfabriek part TFWOR3 with it, so you have both worms.

What you need for conversion set

- The model and upgrade kit

- Small screwdrivers

- Soldering iron 15W/25W

- General model making tools


Installation time: Around 40 minutes

Contents of the kit.

1

2

Take apart

Remove the screw under the chimney and lift the housing off the chassis.

Remove the bolt on the top and keep it aside. You need this later again. The screw attached to this bold is the contact point to the power pickups from the right wheels (seen in the direction of forwards driving).

3

Remove the bottom plate, which is hooked to the chassis at the rear.

4

5

Take the wheels out. Inspect the gear for split. You need to look with a magnifying glass or make a sharp picture and zoom in, in order to check if there is a crack. This is quite a common problem. A 16 teeth replacement gear can be gotten from Graham Farish

Take the wheels out.

6

Slide the motor assembly from the model, in the direction of the arrows. You need to cut off the wire at the rear end of the model to completely remove the parts.

7

8

Continue with the bare frame. Remove the clip and bush. You don’t need the bush anymore, but the clip will be re-used.

The motor will fit between the dotted lines. The motor will lean at the front against the raised part and at the rear just on the bare metal part.

9

Fitting the worm on the motor shaft: No glue is needed, this is a press fit. Find a piece of wood of metal with a small hole in it. Note that the worm has a larger side on one side than on the other side. Press the side with the large hole a bit on the motor shaft. To completely press it on, put the motor with the rear shaft in the hole on the plate. Then press the worm on until it is almost touching the motor housing. If you press it on and not support the back, you will press the back out of the housing. The plastic back part is not glued.

Question? Just reach out!

This is the result

10

Make the space to glue the motor grease/oil free. Then, using 90 seconds Epoxy glue, glue the motor in place. Keep the RED wire to the LEFT, the BLUE wire to the RIGHT. Slide the motor against the raised part and make sure it is straight and aligned with the chassis.

Please take note: it has come to my attention that some motors seem to be wired differently, which means the electrical poles of the motor are swapped. This means the red wire should lead to the front of the train, while the blue wire has to go to the clip. So test if the direction of the model is going in the same way as your other models. If not, swap the wires around.

11

12

(Also photo above) Solder the supplied brass ring to the blue wire. You might want to shorten the cable a little, enough to reach the bolt that will be re-fitted later on.

Cut the red wire shorter (I left it a bit longer no the picture below, just for possible future DCC conversion) and solder it to the clip. Keep the solder connection in the right top corner (green arrow) and not, as might be tempting, straight in the middle. Otherwise it will touch the wheel close to it.

If you can’t recognise the tool at the right: it’s a clamp that holds the clip, to make it easy to solder the wire on the clip.

13

17

Place the wheels and bottom cover. Cut the front part of the motor cover and use it between the chassis and the bolt, so isolate the screw from the chassis. The wire with the ring go on the screw and fix it with the bolt.

Test it and when all is working fine, oil the gears (plastic safe oil available here) and re-assemble the model.  First hook it in the rear, then fit the screw.


Important!! In my model, I couldn’t tighten the screw too much, as it blocked the wheel from spinning. Just keep it loose enough so it spins freely. This, of course, has nothing to do with the conversion, but with the construction of the model.


If it is not running well,:

Stutter or jittery behaviour, but keeps on driving = most likely gear split

Stutter and often stands still= Clean the wheels

Doesn’t run: see note about main chassis-to-body screw above.

Then you’re done. Unless you want to make it digital…

Digital conversion

If you want to make it digital, the Train-O-Matic Micro decoder fits on top of the motor.  Available from the Tramfabriek here. The perfect CV settings for this motor for several decoder brands you can find by clicking here.