bill7437 Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 As Jouef collectors will know a number of their locos had a motorisation using a rubber belt which often stretched or perished giving a terrible performance. As a lifelong Jouef enthusiast I wanted to improve these locos where possible. The 67409/15005/15006 I converted to gear drive using the 10054 gears some while ago when Jouef parts were easy to obtain but other locos posed a problem. Casually looking through French ebay I came upon a company "Ferroversum" who were producing silicone belts to replace the rubber items and at a price of 1.50 euro for two plus post thought they may be worth a try. After fitting to my three BB 12000/13000 the performance was so considerably enhanced I have decided to retrofit all my Jouef belt drive locos with these items. They have a website https://ferroversum.com where they also have re-motor kits for other Jouef locos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rana Temporia Posted June 13, 2020 Share Posted June 13, 2020 THis is great information thanks. I have been using Hornby and Lima traction tyres as replacements ( the original Jouef ones were also their traction tyres). The silicon ones look a lot more durable. Like you I have replaced some of the drive belts/shafts using 'junk box' broken Playcraft and early Jouef locos and converted them to gear drive. Why someone thought a rubber band was a good solution to drive a loco when they already had the equipment to make the gears I will never know? I have had trouble with some of the plastic gears splitting but in some cases they are getting on for 50 years old and plastic can get brittle. You do see a lot of Jouef locos for sale on eBay and the like with the comment 'motor runs but no movement'. This is usually down to the loco having been stood for a long time and the rubber band gets stuck in the shape over the large and small pulley and becomes inflexible And egg shaped. A new band usually sorts this. Some are easier to get at than others and it can take a while. I put a photo description on changing the band on one of the 280s in the 'what's on your workbench' thread in the general forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rana Temporia Posted June 13, 2020 Share Posted June 13, 2020 Thanks again, I have just been on their eBay site and an order will be going in later today! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill7437 Posted June 13, 2020 Author Share Posted June 13, 2020 Hi Rana, glad you found my info useful. As the early 60/s Jouef/Playcraft items were horribly noisy with their gear drive and 3 pole motors some boffin ??? at Jouef thought the belt drive would be a better and less costly solution but they have always been a pain in the ar.. stretching and slipping like mad. As you say gear splitting also a nuisance particularly with the Caravelle/RTG type of motor bogie. Having collected Jouef now for well over 40 years I have amassed a pretty good selection of bits so can usually fix most things and also have a friend in Paris who runs the French Jouef collectors website www.lestrainsjouef@free.fr. Do have a look as there is much information there.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rana Temporia Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 Bill, I put an order in on their eBay shop on Weds and the items arrived yesterday. Great service, especially seeing as te items came from France to the UK. Now all I need is the time to put them on!Ihave uses the Lestrainsjouef site for a while to get the service sheets and to check the info on some of my models. Like you I have a considerable amount of spares from Playcraft/early Jouef models. I think of all the locos I have (several dozen, although are in a partially stripped condition) that have originated with Jouef I have only had one motor that I couldn't repair. I even had one of the early 6v electrics that I bought as a bag of bits and in the end there was only one screw missing. The motor was dead to start with so I put 12v through it which woke it up a bit. From then on it ran incredibly smoothly. I think I put a how to guide for this loco on the What's on Your Workbench thread. I noticed I used 280 in my earlier thread, of course it should be 140. 😀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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