Jouef Loco Motor Drive Belt Improvement

[bill7437]

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.

[Rana Temporia]

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.

[Rana Temporia]

Thanks again, I have just been on their eBay site and an order will be going in later today!

[bill7437]

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.

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[Rana Temporia]

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.  😀