"This defies the laws of physics".
Cue spooky music......
The layout that I made is about 5 years old and has been stored unused in the garage for the last four and a half years. It has 8 motorised points (Gaugemaster "Seep") driven by a capacitor discharge unit. They all worked superbly 5 years ago.
But when I tried it again recently the points were useless, only feebly moving the switch blades over half way at best. I WD40'd the motor pistons, and even replaced the CDU, with no improvement at all. The input voltage from a new controller at 18v was better than the 16v I used before.
However, in the grand engineering tradition of aimlessly prodding things with a screwdriver, I discovered by accident over a couple days messing around that by just lightly touching the blade of the screwdriver on the side of the piston made the motors work perfectly again.
So I have hung split-washers on the middle of the piston(s) and they all work perfectly. Two brand new motors work perfectly without the bodge washer.
Now, I am gald to have avoided the hassle of unsoldering everything to replace all the motors, but I just cannot understand why this worked. The problem is weird, and the solution impossible, even with my doing A-level Physics, and an degree in Engineering, once upon a time.
I
know Gremlins really do exist of course.....
