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Reker1000000

12v Grey Era train motor replacement

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I've been looking for a suitable replacement 12v DC motor for the Grey Era train motors since I opened 2 of mine and found that both had broken commutators, and haven't found anything so far. However, today I had an idea. Has anyone opened up one of the 12v motors from the Blue Era? Those were also manufactured by Buhler and ran on the same voltage, and I was thinking there might be a possibility that they could be used to replace the ones in the 80s motors. I may try this myself if I can get my hands on one of those motors.

Thoughts? Or, if anyone has opened this type of motor, does it look like it could be swapped?

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A while ago someone mentioned this motor in a German forum:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/182517404201

I have no idea which tools and knowledge is needed to replace an original LEGO/Bühler motor with such a motor? 

The 70's style motor inside the larger outer box only has a shaft on one side. But you need two, one on each side to power both axles.

Here is the 70's motor at Bricklink: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=x551#T=C&C=11

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Ok, here's another idea I might try. @HoMa you're right, I realized the axle on the Blue Era motors wouldn't be long enough to power both sides. But, I found an excellent thread (linked in one of the recent 12v motor posts, I think) here about motor repair. The last post in the thread is about buying a new DC motor, taking the commutator off, and then putting it on the original Lego motor shaft. It looks like a fair bit of work and would require some tools and dexterity, but I think it could be done. This would work if the commutator is meant for the correct axle diameter (I think 2mm) and is meant for a 3-pole motor, like the Lego motors are. I will (at some point) buy at least one of these and try my hand at replacing the commutator on one of my 2 motor blocks with burnt-out commutators.

I've found some potentially suitable replacements on eBay, so I will see about getting one or more of them to test.

Edited by Reker1000000

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