# Rewire a Steamer Motor



## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

I started with the wire off the coil.









I pulled the old out and solderd the new in. Then I checked for a good connection to the frame. That wire is attached to the right.









I do not have the center rail piece so I cannot do that today.

Another picture with th ewire removed.









You can just barely see the coil wire on the top of the hole.

The new wire in place with the coil wire to the left.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

*The e unit*

You have four connections here.
The two reds go to the motor brushes. Doesn't matter , just one wire each. The right goes to the power . The next picture. The yellow connects to the coil we just did.










And the wire from the center rail goes here. The e unit coil wire also attaches here.










That's the plan.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

The other side of the coil attaches here. That must be check. If the lever is in position the selenoid works and shifts. Basically the coil gets grounded. Undo the lever and you lock the direction.










The bottom wire is changed here. It goes to one brush on the motor.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

The top e unit wires can be tricky. You need a long iron to reach. Too much solder may short out your connection too. A hard picture to take.

1 is the coil wire, 2 is the second brush wire, three is the center rail feed from the side. 










Last there is the bulb socket. Some have a rivet to solder to. This one is just a twist of wire with solder on it. Make sure the wire is insulated where it passes through the socket.


















The wire connects to the e unit side with the center rail feed.

My wires are in place but I am not ready to finish it. This should satisfy the curiosity.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Who ever asked you to rewire a motor was talking about the motor coils I believe.

But thanks for taking the time to show what you did.:thumbsup:


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

All you do is turn ,turn and turn, The shady Days of Winter!
When you are done, solder the ends togther and to the plates.
Try to get the same number of turns when you take off the old wire.
It's hard to do and worth it to buy another one. Just try it.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

T-Man,

As a reminder to others reading this info ...

Some old-school Lionel motors are wired to have the e-unit flip the "direction" of current running through the armature. I believe that's the case with T-Man's motor, as shown in the pics here ... two wires running from the e-unit ... one to each brush. The "direction" of current running through the field coil (further downstream) stays fixed. One wire runs from the e-unit to the field coil, and the other wire from the field coil is grounded to the motor frame.

However, other Lionel motors are wired with a different logic. On these, the e-unit flips the "direction" of current running through the field coil, with two wires from the e-unit running to the coil. One other wire from the e-unit goes to an armature brush, and the other armature brush is grounded to the motor frame. The "direction" of current running through the armature (further downstream from the field coil) always stays the same.

So, in looking at an old Lionel motor, one should try to identify which wiring setup of the above options exists. As long as you can trace the circuit properly, the general rewiring steps are basically the same.

Cheers,

TJ


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