Class 4F Graham Farish Non-Runner Fix/Rebuild N gauge

In this video i will try and fix this Graham Farish Class 4F. il show you how i troubleshoot and fix the problems that arise.

[@virtualtrainspottinglive]

Thanks so much for this. Ben having issues with my Farish Merchant Navy which uses the same 5 pole motor and plastic cradle for it. Followed this along for a full disassembly and clean and adjusted the cradle, and got it working again!

[@ThisWayWorksTWW]

@@virtualtrainspottinglive Fantastic stuff 👍 glad the video was of help and good on you for fixing your Merchant 👍👍

[@TheHeritageLine]

Great Job with this loco, every time I watch you videos I learn more and more! would like to see more of this loco when you do the mods, showing how and what your doing to it. Your videos are brilliant for reference! hopefully over time you will cover more and more of the different types of chassis from old to new including the Dapol and Minitrix. All the best Tony.

[@paulsngaugechannel]

Superb channel, don’t see many videos on n gauge locomotive repairs, but yours is great. I am building a N gauge layout and after years away from the hobby, it’s the first time I have seen anyone showing how to repair N models. Great to watch, as my locomotives, and other stock is predominantly 2nd hand ( or more) I have been lucky with the few I have, that they have been well looked after. Thanks again for sharing.

[@barryashby5394]

Very helpful, watched while taking apart an identical model which at the moment is still screaches round the track!

[@ThisWayWorksTWW]

Thanks for watching 👍, screeching is normally the motor bearings being a bit dry if that helps 👍, slight touch of grease on the bearing plastic recesses should alleviate that screech 👍

[@barryashby5394]

I just tried to grease, a small plastic bit came off where the top just pushes on near the bushes and sound suppression. It won't stay together now, also the wire from the sound suppression has no intention of going back into that slot. Must be a cheaper model that has died on the operating table😂

[@colinhamshaw1468]

Another great tutorial video. I liked the un-edited way you filmed it, showing the strip down of the loco...as it happened, with all the other faults found together with any minor remedial alterations required. Brilliant! I look forward to the next videos.

[@joshwilliams0391]

Great video! It did look like one of the bearing blocks had the hole slightly off-centre as well. I always add a drop of lubricant to the bearing blocks before putting the armature back in, that helps a lot. The amount of oil that was present on the chassis block and pickups is something you'll see often as previous owners have tried (in vain) to get it running.

[@bvh6186]

Really enjoyed this. Just got two early prairie tanks and one runs as sweet as a sowing machine, the other is a bag of spanner. Thanks for the inspiration for this evenings job!

[@ThisWayWorksTWW]

Glad you enjoyed it 👍, i suspect the prairie and the 4f amongst others are all pretty much the same type of motor, the no.1 issue i see is oil either being on the pickups or the motor! Good luck 👍👍

[@brucepostlethwaite9922]

Thanks for this - helped me get my 4F running again!

[@ThisWayWorksTWW]

Thats lovely to hear the videos helped you out 👍

[@paulsngaugechannel]

Always something to learn from your videos. Thanks for sharing.

[@stevechaospilot48]

Helped me understand how to service. Many thanks

[@ThisWayWorksTWW]

Glad it was helpful, Thanks for watching 👍

[@robertwhite361]

Great video! A couple of things I do different is to put a tiny drop of oil in the engine bearings on reassembly as sometimes if its dry it makes a dry socket and can screech. The other this is to reassemble the motor in the body without the wheels in and test the motor runs first. Hope that helps if you do another!

[@ThisWayWorksTWW]

Thanks Robert, yes all very valid points👍, i find those oil droppers, about the size of a pen work great and can get into all the small places👌

[@michaelleogreaves]

Fantastic video mate. Thorough and covers pretty much everything. Thanks

[@Hal-Zuzzu_Model_Railway]

Job well done. That is exactly my cuppa tea kind of job :) You may want to shim that extra play on the shaft to avoid a "bump start" when the motor starts turning until all the slack on the shaft has been taken up! this will show more on DCC and very slow starts :) Again, job well done :)

[@ThisWayWorksTWW]

Thank you 👍, i think i might have to do another video in the future as im liking the loco more and more each time i run it, it did have to much float on the armature so a used a GF bearing block and cut it basically into a big washer to minimise the float, like you say it was making the slapping noise, all ok now though 👍

[@Hal-Zuzzu_Model_Railway]

@@ThisWayWorksTWW Well then, yet another great job done :) :)

[@teacoffee5847]

I really do look forward to your vids, fantastic work!

[@malcolmhewson1279]

The "noise suppressor" reduces the sparking that occurs when the brushes cross the commutator gaps. Probably reduces wear, but certainly used to be needed to stop the model railway interfering with the television. PS - The sparking may be invisibly small, but is present.

[@jimabraham7275]

Just passing on an idea that has worked well....couldn't find any coupling rods for my very old 9400 so made a pair from an old Junior Hacksaw blade. Worked really well, although a little crude.

[@ThisWayWorksTWW]

Wow nicely done 👍

[@black5f]

I wish I watched this 6 hours ago! The 8f chassis is very very similar apart for having a little idle gear.. On mine the rear motor mount could move? So I drilled a little hole just 0.8 and pinned it down. Also the previous custodian had used grease and the motor bearings were very tight? Cleaned and used a light oil and she runs like a ream now,

[@black5f]

I forgot to say excellent video and you're logic ... infallible. More news, reverse the magnet, direction changes (I did this). This ceramic capacitors have a life of 10 - 15 years, they reduce RF interference from the sparks off the commutator (and reduce wear a bit). The life of the caps is a gradual decline in resistance until they short? The RF suppression is for old TV sets on FM. I think they are 470mf? But their life is a lot less than these locos. I noticed that when I bolted the armature back in, the plastic part deformed and made the bearing real tight? so I just loosed it a bit. I replaced the idle gear. I was thinking of a core less conversion but at the moment she's running fine and not getting red hot. But she still gets faster as she warms up? I suspect she is still full of sticky nasty oil from a previous owner. Please use a light sewing machine oil or electrolube. Grease attracts dirt..

[@jimabraham7275]

Your videos have inspired me to have a go at resurrecting my late son's Grafar locos starting off with a Class 9400. I would very much appreciate your advice. I have dismantled the loco and obviously need to replace the gears. It also has the connecting rods missing. please see pics attached. I'm guessing that the gears from n parish spares are the same for all n gauge local so have some on order. I checked on Bachman Spares and saw that they have the complete wheel assembly. However, the three options they show only have one gear fitted and the connecting rods are attached to each of the three wheels whereas it appears that the middle wheel on my loco was not connected (no connecting rod pins). Can you offer any advice or recommendations?Finally, thank you very much for a wonderful series. Very inspirational and down to earth. Jim

[@ThisWayWorksTWW]

Hi Jim, your loco predates any loco ive shown on my channel. You have a very early GF loco. If you havent allready it might be worth phoning and maybe emailing Farish n Spares and see if they can help for parts as unfortunately i have never worked on a GF chassis like yours, if Farish n Spares cant help then i would suggest joining and asking on some N gauge forums with regards to finding replacement parts 👍 Cheers Rich

[@Decrepit_biker]

The noise suppressor was for old style analogue TV signals. Completely redundant now!

[@ThisWayWorksTWW]

Its funny they still put them in some of the newer locos, we'd get cheaper trains if they stopped using them! 🤣

[@Decrepit_biker]

@@ThisWayWorksTWW nah... they'd just make more profits 😂😂

[@davidhepworth7084]

The suppressors aren't redundant; I'm also a radio ham and we get a lot of electrical noise from equipment that isn't properly suppressed. Also, in Europe, including UK, equipment has to include suppression so as not to cause interference, by law; companies have been known to include the suppression to get the equipment past the regulators and then remove it to save money when it goes into production - wall-wart power suppliers are some of the main culprits.

[@andrewlaverghetta715]

I’ve got a Class 04 Shunter with a split gear on the axle that gets power. It has rods like a steam loco and I don’t know how to take the rods off in order to get the gear separated and replace the gear. Any thoughts please? Thank you!

[@ThisWayWorksTWW]

The pins holding the link on pull out the wheels, they are press fitted👍

[@jimabraham7275]

Can't see how tp attach pics. Sorry. Jim

[@ThisWayWorksTWW]

Hi Jim, your loco predates any loco ive shown on my channel. You have a very early GF loco. If you havent allready it might be worth phoning and maybe emailing Farish n Spares and see if they can help for parts as unfortunately i have never worked on a GF chassis like yours, Cheers Rich

[@androgeniusan4845]

toooo long video !

[@ThisWayWorksTWW]

Thanks for watching it 👍