Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2019 17:09:52 GMT -5
Another member suggested I post a previous thread in this part of the forum, so here it is. It pertains to the Tyco/Mantua motor trucks circa 1960 thru '73, or thereabouts. It may help those who tear down and rebuild these as I do.
The screw mount gimbal originally came with springs on 2 long-shouldered small-head screws. 2 pan-head screws were used for the front pick-up truck. If you look at the rear coupler pocket, it will be narrow or wide. Wide pockets have a horn-hook with a molded plastic spring, but the narrow pockets have the older horn-hook with a fine-wire spring to move it. Why is this important? Well, all the narrow-pocket plates were on the frames that have removable armatures that (under the riveted plate) are strapped in with microscopic screws! This means those motor blocks can be completely rebuilt, armature and all! The wide-pocket motor had the armature straps staked in and cannot be removed without destroying the motor frame. These tiny details are what I use when shopping potential rebuild prospects......tedious yes....effective, yes, especially when you don't want to but 2 dozen just to find the right one by chance, lol!
And I am going to expand just a tad on this, so bear with me, lol! The mounting gimbal does NOT mean a newer motor version, and the above discovery confirms this fact. The snap-in gimbal was created initially for Mantua's first GP20 models, but they still had the identical white-metal, narrow-pocket, screw-mounted armature as their first F7 with the screw-mounted gimbal. The white-plate is the earliest MU to be used in the F7 (which Mantua/Tyco marketing consistently, and erroneously billed as an F9). As a production cost-cutting & time-saving measure, in 1970 Mantua discontinued the screw-mounted MU gimbal, notched the rear of the F7 shell, and used the same side-tab gimbal as their GP20. By this time, the couplers were the universal x2f horn-hook, and all the motor armatures were staked in.
The screw mount gimbal originally came with springs on 2 long-shouldered small-head screws. 2 pan-head screws were used for the front pick-up truck. If you look at the rear coupler pocket, it will be narrow or wide. Wide pockets have a horn-hook with a molded plastic spring, but the narrow pockets have the older horn-hook with a fine-wire spring to move it. Why is this important? Well, all the narrow-pocket plates were on the frames that have removable armatures that (under the riveted plate) are strapped in with microscopic screws! This means those motor blocks can be completely rebuilt, armature and all! The wide-pocket motor had the armature straps staked in and cannot be removed without destroying the motor frame. These tiny details are what I use when shopping potential rebuild prospects......tedious yes....effective, yes, especially when you don't want to but 2 dozen just to find the right one by chance, lol!
And I am going to expand just a tad on this, so bear with me, lol! The mounting gimbal does NOT mean a newer motor version, and the above discovery confirms this fact. The snap-in gimbal was created initially for Mantua's first GP20 models, but they still had the identical white-metal, narrow-pocket, screw-mounted armature as their first F7 with the screw-mounted gimbal. The white-plate is the earliest MU to be used in the F7 (which Mantua/Tyco marketing consistently, and erroneously billed as an F9). As a production cost-cutting & time-saving measure, in 1970 Mantua discontinued the screw-mounted MU gimbal, notched the rear of the F7 shell, and used the same side-tab gimbal as their GP20. By this time, the couplers were the universal x2f horn-hook, and all the motor armatures were staked in.
