You've proved the value of both motor upgrades: greater control and realism for less power.

Good to see that the old Lima locos are still viewed as worth upgrading, especially as I seem to have acquired a few over the years! Still think the best upgrade is adding an extra pick-up so they run over points and sections on DC without stalling.

Hi OOBill, thanks for this episode, if nothing else it highlighted another re-motoring option, it’s great that Micromotor entrusted you to review this kit, but what is truly fantastic is that Peters Spares has chosen to stock these kits. This kit installation fits a wide range of models, not just older Lima ringfield types, and accounts for, as such, their installation instructions being precise regarding specific glues to be employed, methods and reasoning behind installation, including wiring, and gluing of motor to housing. Regarding kit pricing, this is quite acceptable when considering (a) you are bringing an obviously important or cherished model (to the owner that is) up to current driving standards for both prototypical, DC or DCC operation, and importantly (b) the cost of current day new replacements can be prohibitive, if you consider for example a brand new class 37, when you already have one. Living in South Australia, I know the huge cost of shipping, but what I hate is when the product fails to meet expectation, Peter’s Spares have never let me down. Finally, yes there are other options, but before you choose, take a long hard look at the spec sheet for the Micromotor motor, and those “options” pale in comparison, this critical point of difference could have been highlighted at little bit more, but like I said, another great episode OOBill.

I recommend a product called the Amazing Goop Max ll. Imagine silicon caulk mixedvwith rubber cement. It is strong enough to hold down a running motor driving a loco but if you want to remove it you can pry it up without damaging the glued area.

A Fine looking Loco Bill - The motor price is what I figured, so it was no Shock - I won’t pay Over the odds for Preowned Loco’s, so if I decided to try this motor conversion I would still be Quids in - I can deffo see the Value if I was upgrading one with Nostalgic Memories connected to it - 37408 has been given a New Lease of Life and Looks Fab - Great Vid Many Thanks 🙏🏻✨

in my humble opinion the gear should be a press fit, the motor into the housing is excusable but ideally that should be a tight or press fit also. kind of gives the feeling the kit is half-assed, again just my opinion.

Another good video

Hi Bill, thanks for the informative and entertaining video. I've converted some of my Lima diesels to run on CD motors - fortunately because I use DCC I can set the voltage to the lower level needed. I did manage to convert a Hornby County class loco but that meant machining a new housing from steel. The reason that I had to do that was that I couldn't get a replacement 3 pole armature! I will check the dimensions of the Micromotor and see if it will be possible to conveert some of my other stock that uses reingfield motors. Cheers.

Interesting conversion, even if I don't have the need for replacing original Lima G type ringfield motors. I control my trains exclusively manually on a Mehano controller, which has a good low power output. Lima motors do require more current to start, but then you can immediately turn the voltage down. This works with a well maintained and lubricated motor, technical petroleum jelly grease on the gears, axles and pick-ups and a mix of the same grease with sewing machine oil on the rotor bearings.

Great video, great detail, I personally love the original Lima motors, the noise and the burning smells just remind me of the mid 90s, I soldered in a 10000uf capacitor in series runs much smoother. Thanks again great video

Bill, a great and informative video, but as an Aussie watching from Melbourne Australia and checking the price from the link you provide, it works out to be nearly double the price and then the postage cost added on top totally puts it out of my price range (and possibly a lot of others overseas) to get here... I can get CD motors for a very cheap price here and they do just the same job and are a press fit for the brass gear required. I am just a bit lost as to why the gear is not a press fit and fitted before they are sent out and also why the 3D printed motor case is also not a press fit, surely they would be better off making the tolerances less and thus alleviates the need for glue or any other fixing agent other than the screws to hold it all in place.

I agree that the Hornby ringfield motors desperately need a similar conversion, although visually, the Hornby motor looked better engineered than the Lima one. I've had several Hornby motors fail or become slow and gutless over the years. Some old Lima units are a bit noisier, but I've never had one fail completely or become under powered. Could also do with something for the tiny ringfield in the old Mainline range. And yes that brass pinnion should be a good press fit, superglue on the hard chromed shaft (difficult to rough up that surface for a better key) of the CD Motor will struggle and probably fail with the heat generated, causing axpansion and contraction.

Why not use the soldering iron to shrink the shrink down, down? The lighter method is just a little tricky in my view.

I’ve seen luggage or fishing scales used as a simple torque gauge, I think one of the mags used to do it as a part of their reviews.

Interesting video .Key flaw to me in the convesrion kit is the use of a brass drive cog to turn the nylon drive cogs. One of the main reasons the Lima motor is so good is that all the cogs are made of the same material & therefore cant wear away. Surely you should be able to fit the cog off the Lima commutator onto the new motor spindle? The Hornby ringfield which on paper should be superior is undone because the nylon drive cogs are tougher than the metal housing to such an extent the cogs wear the nibs the cogs sit on away into a egg shape, then theres the way the cogs are held in place, the use of a brass / nickel drive cog & the lack of the stopper washer on the free end of the armature makes for a dogs breakfast of to much lateral movement. The Lima motor is pretty rigid , the cogs held firmly in place with the small brass screws & hence why its so reliable Been running Lima locos for over 45 years , never had to chuck a motor away yet. the best way to make the Limas run better is constant use, the more they run the better they work. these motors are designed to run , when youve run them for days on end run them some more. The lima motor is a superbly engineered & designed bit of stuff. Ive fitted 3 lima motors with the cd motors, one as a test bed & to be honest the difference in performance has been negligable. i fitted one cd motor in my Bratchells class 320 kit as it takes up less room in the bodyshell than the Lima HST motor with brush arms, fitted the other in a Lima 87 motor thats used in a Hornby class 86 to see how it fares. Im surprised nobody has created a kit that allows a can motor in the middle of the loco to be fitted with a new housing to fit the Lima bogie to give 2/ 3 axle drive, eliminate altogether the bogie mounted motor. When Lima did can motors such as whats in the 20 & the 67 just how good are they, the 67 is a lovely runner. At £39 plus the cost the loco you are getting into secondhand Bachmann class 37 territory. let alone VI-trains. For £39 a can motor/ cradle - flywheel, drive shaft & a gearbox with drive cogs would be a far better solution.

Hi Bill very good video amazing the difference in the quantity of the new motor hope you’re wife is getting better ? Bernard

Hi Bill, i have been making up DVD motor conversions which uses a slightly thinnner motor, and then applying twin diodes, also i have made a conversaion for Hornby ringfield, get back to me and i should be able to shot a few over for you to test, also have a high RPM unit which uses a tattao electrical motor, but i am.still working out the power reduction.

I wouldn’t be confident that the pinion gear would stay glued for an extended time , given it’s a metal to metal contact. it will be interesting to see to see Bill,

I checked peters spares for the cost and as of 5/Mar 2024 - £39 seems very high for this pack given you have to glue the motor in place, it would have been good if a face bracket could have been supplied with it that could hold the motor in place (there are 4 cut outs on the pin side of the moto that could be used if there is sufficient space to allow the bogie to still turn without interfering with the body/chassis. Having said that - the motor looks a good quality one.

Hi there Bill ,, gr8 idea to keep these old locos going especially if the motor is shagged but if these are near 40 pounds for the lot and its a 5 pole motor , well thats really not too bad a price for someone in the UK but being here in Australia its going to cost at least 20 pounds then add that to the total cost 60 pounds then double that because of our conversion rate then import taxes as well as gst charges to get it in and out of the country there and here can make it up around the $150 to $160 mark for 1 conversion. So id really prefer to buy a bulk amount of just the adaptors and supply my own cd drive motors which I have been pulling out of cd drives and old wrecked printers as they have the same type of small 6 and 12 volt motors in them. I even found that the electric side mirrors or wing mirrors have small cd drive type motors in them so im going to give them a crack at installing them in a pack of 4 cd drive conversions i bought a year or so ago. The other problem is the cost of posting from peters spares as last time i went on to Peters Spares eBay site i ordered a heap of traction tyres and a few small drive cogs which wouldnt have weighed any more than 100 grams in total. So finishing up the purchase I went to the ebay checkout and the cost of postage to here was near $80 ausd. I stopped the payment process and sent them a message to see if they could send me an invoice for only the minimum postage to me , as I am the one paying it out of my money. They sent me back a message saying that the minimum postage weight to send here in Australia would be 2kgs. So i sent them another msg back to them asking if the cost to send to me is excessive can i get a refund on the excess postage cost. There reply was No. To send anywhere there standard minimum weight is 2kgs for postage. So if you want to cover your postage cost value you better spend up big to get my moneys worth to get to the weight of 2kgs to cover my postage cost. Sooo i just canned the whle order and was close to $400 ausd as I was ordering at least 20 different sets of traction tyres and four lots of them and you know yourself Bill they dont weigh that much even with packaging. Cheers from John in Australia.

When you do the ringfield motor comparison video, I wonder if you could do some close-up video, or photos of exactly where you add oil & add silicone grease. I have one that I've never added either to as I'm not sure what goes where. Cheers, Kev.

its a shame they don't do one for the n scale ringfeild. i have a few that need new motors and i cannot for the life of me find them. ooh the contact cleaner worked a treat. Thankyou.

You could always solder the pinion to the shaft

It'd be cheaper and better to get a 2nd hand (or new) ViTrains class 37 with working lights, twin flywheel and dcc ready. The Lima 37 body fits the chassis with minimal effort. They even made the chassis available separately to do the Lima concession. You could then sell the old Lima chassis. I've picked up a few complete ViTrains 37s for £25 in the past.

Super glue isn't a good choice for the gear. It may fail sooner than later. Excellent video anyway. Thanks.

Same as a previous comment. I would like an N gauge replacement motor for Lima locos.

Not a cheap motor but with some new locos costing £200+ it's great to see an old girl given a new lease of life, regards Terry. PS How's Miles Beevor running these days?

very informative thank you .I have one question did the new motor affect the fastest speed or was it the same speed as original lima motor

I would have used ball bearing retaining compound on that brass gear and to fit the motor into the housing. I don't trust super glue on parts subject to mechanical loads and heat. In fact, I just don't like super glue for any modelling application.... I've got bit of a bee in my bonnet about the stuff 😅

You mention the voltage. Isn´t it controlled by PWM ?????

I must say the Diesel-Trains replacement motors seem better to me. They are cheaper, the (nylon) pinion gear is already fitted to the motor and you don't have to glue the motor into the housing just fit the back cover. That said if any of those fail I would consider replacing them with this one.

Looks Good. Having to use Superglue with an expensive conversion kit seems a bit strange. If it's expensive it should be designed to clip into place? Good that it runs well, but as you say, so do cheaper versions. 🤔

As you say a bit on the pricey side of things. Strathpeffer Junction, on KZfaq, no affiliation to me, do Lima and Hornby Ringfield kits 6v and 12v. Noticeable cheaper.

One would think rather than focussing on DCC Hornby/Lima should improve their power units. Just saying😮

Someone will soon be along with a far more sensibly priced equivalent.

Why not say the price?

Not really a lot of difference between this one and the price charged for other conversion kits they offer. One wonders if the prices are down to Peters Spares??

Sorry but the reliance on superglue just doesn't cut the mustard with me.

£39 isn't that bad- I spend £30 plus for the excellent coreless motors from High Level motors and gearboxes for my brass kits- you do get what you pay for on these motors and I suspect it will outlast cheaper ones

GorbeJesus... £39 quid! I can buy a secondhand loco for that much. I'm out! 😂

Having to glue the gear to the motor shaft is an appalling bad design on an otherwise great motor kit. Inexperienced or overzealous modellers could get superglue or epoxy running down the shaft and locking the motor up ruining it. Also after a period of time, with the forces imposed a superglue joint WILL fail. The prices these are i’d expect better design or method of fitting the gear than that. Other than that, the motor is great, powerful and efficient and designed to fit well. It would be interesting to see how it performed under dcc.

It’s expensive, but not ridiculously so. I’m more irritated by the gear not being a close fit and the 3D printed packer component being grey. Grey always looks like a home 3D print. For a fairly premium kit, I’d want it to be black and look the part a bit more. But it’s doubtless a good enough idea. Lima’s can, and do, run fantastically for their age. A kit to make them run better can only be welcome.

A bodge looking at the price to be honest. Needs more development plus, a reduction in 'Peters Spares ' postage costs.

That motor costs more than the loco!!

😮 wow a bit too much for my wallet

A bit expensive

£39.30 bloody rip off.