Attacking Martian: Broken Robot Help

[RotoBadger]

MetalRobot and Honest:

You guys both figured it out! The gear you show in your pictures is a lime green plastic gear on my Attacking Martian (HonestJoe pointed this one out) . It is not broken but it seems to keep slipping out of place. I was fooling around with it and it fell completely off. I shook it out of the body, used some needlenose pliers and put it back in place. The robot worked again for about 10 seconds and then slipped it's gear again. At least I know what the problem is now. Thanks for all your input! This place is the best for robot advice.

I've got a silver attacking martian on the way too...

EDIT:

Ok, looked closer at the gear. HonestJoe you were right the first time. The gear is indeed split. That's why it isn't staying in place or engaging. Looks like I need to dig up a metal gear now.

[plan3b]

Robotbadger, I had my eye on that Silver Attacking Martian myself - but, spaced out and missed the auction deadline! Tell me if it is as nice as it looks. At least if a fellow 'Alphadromer' snags a robot from you - you know it went to a good home!

Also, I know what you mean about the great advice here. There is no way I could have possibly finished my Alps Television Spaceman restoration - and ended up with a working unit - if it hadn't been for the help I received here!

[H.I. Gosses]

If your robot coughs up blood or dark yellow flem.....

RotoBadger, unless you take the robot apart, you will not be able to press-fit a brass

pinion to the motor. You must support the backend of the motor shaft when you

press on a pinion .

If by some miraculous means you were able to apply sufficient pressure from one end,

you would end up by pressing the motor apart rather than the pinion onto the shaft!

So unless you have the motor (back end) on some sort of anvil,

your only alternative is to glue the pinion. You must ream out a pinion so that it

tightly slidefits on the motor shaft. Then apply a TINY amount of Locktite and heat up

the pinion with a clean soldering iron. This should glue it in place,-the forces on this

pinion are miniscule, so as long as it does not slip, that's good enough.

Enjoy!

[RotoBadger]

Well HonestJoe...I owe you a thanks! I ordered the slot car gear you suggested to fix my Attacking Martian and it came a couple days ago. Here's the problem: H.I. was right. I am having a hell of a time getting that gear on. I'm using needlenose pliers and the gear just won't slide on. Do you have any suggestions on how to ream out the gear a bit? I'm so close...yet so far. :(

[H.I. Gosses]

The shaft of the motor is Metric (Japanese) i.e. 1,5 mm. 1/16 Imperial = 1,5874mm, that is a bit

too large, though with a lot of Locktite....

As the pinion is brass you could try to ream it out with a nail of nearly the right diameter that

you flatten slightly into a spade shape.

----Your best option would still be to take out the motor and press it on. Do not be intimidated

by the necessity of taking the robot apart. It has been made by mere mortals, so if you consider well

before you do anything, you can take it apart and put it together again*.----

* unless you are like my neighbour..

[Kilroy]

I hope nobody minds me resurrecting an old post. I am a new member and I have a lot of catching up to do.

Where do you find these metal pinion gears? Is there a source of them or do you just raid them from other toys?

I have several of the Taiwan robots with the broken gear, I was going to fabricate one of plastic but was not very confident about friction fitting it on the metal shaft. I will try it anyway and experiment a bit. Any experience here would be appreciated.

On the above comments on WD-40, I thought I would share my experience - I have a tin tank that was trying desperately to work but was really dry and what movement there was came with pitiful screeches, so I shot some wd-40 into the gears and it did make the action a lot better but then a metal pinion gear started to slip because of the lubrication between it and the shaft. I cleaned it off as best as I could, tried heating it up in the hopes of "burning off" the lubricant, then applied a dollup of metal epoxy but I haven't tried it since, I don't think it will hold. It hadn't occured to me to try lock-tite.

[Sparkrobot]

I had this happen when I tried out a brand new Space Evil robot ,He worked when I first got him,then about a week later I took him out of the cabinet,all I got was a whirring noise ,no turning or gun doors opening ,[the Gremlins were out] :ph34r: <_< .I will try some of the suggestions to try and repair him ,If only I had John Rigg's skills, there wouldn't be a problem. :D

[larry seven]

:) Welcome Kilroy, glad to have you here. Somewhere back in the robot talk pages there is a thread that mentions an online supplier for these gears, but itt may be hard to find. -Larry7

[honestjoe]

HI KILROY....HMMMM?..a loose brass gear on shaft...if you can find the size of the gear required...number of teeth..length depth and bore...most slot car suppliers do a wide range of brass and nylon gears...i doubt the shaft has worn to cause this issue.is it loose all the way along the axle?.can you post a pic of the gear and shaft ?...it would help determine course of action..there are some great products on the market for securing metal to metal..super fast setting glues are risky with these jobs get it wrong and not only do you stick the gear to far up the shaft but you also stick your fingers together!...if you decide to use glue..rough up the position of the pinion gear with emery paper gently this will help provide a good key for the glue to set...i have used glues for such issues but prefer more mechanical and permanent solutions so the next person to own something from my collection hopefully never has to revisit the problem...on another note...ROTOBADGER..did you sort your martian...it is very possible to change pinion gear wihout dismantling your mint martian...i would never risk the tabs on the robot just to replace this gear...apologies for not being there to assist you..saying that...i have no idea where i was at the time...cheers and good luck kilroy!...hj.

[Fineas J. Whoopie]

Welcome to the board Kilroy.

[Kilroy]

Thanks for the interest Honest Joe, but I didn't really plan on revisiting the tank issue for a while but I am looking forward to tackling the gears on the Taiwan robots. If I could find a satisfactory solution, then I would feel better about picking up some more that obviously suffer from the same problem.

[robothut]

As for the metal pinon gear slipping, just solder it! and for finding replacement pinon gears , it is easyest to find them in cheep toys, non robot toys, that way you will not feel bad for takeing them.

[Joe K.]

Welcome Kilroy.

Here's a entertaining "gear" thread from a couple years ago. The "gear supplier" link is still valid. It's always nice to know that Henk is still with us.

http://danefield.com/alpha/forums/index.ph...l=gear+supplier