Repair Your Dumbo (monorail playset) Ride

boBQuincy

<font color=green>I am not carrying three pods<br>
Joined
Nov 26, 2002
It seems most of the Dumbo toy rides have a broken gear, the symptoms are: motor runs but the ride does not move. It also seems that due to the age of these toys some gears are broken even when new in the box! The gear is an odd size and difficult to find but after a long search I found the gear was available from a model railroad parts supplier I have bought from for years. I should have known they would either have the gear or would make them since that is their specialty.

The supplier is Northwest Short Line (NWSL, now owned by OsoRail), the part number is 2921-6, $9.95.

Dumbo is kind of tricky to take apart and although someone claims he is the *only* one who can do it the fact is most good modelers will figure it out*. Once apart we can remove the old gear (which is most likely cracked) and replace it with the new one.

As far as I know this also applies to Astro Orbiter; Tea Cups; and maybe other monorail playset rides.


*press out the pins and remove the four arms



2921-6 $9.95
Mod 0.6 x 8T SG x 6.04mm OD x 5.0mm face x 2.0mm bore, delrin
 
Thanks, I have an Orbiter that is NIB and never worked, I tired it once and put back in the box. My husband is a model RR guy, so perhaps there is hope for it.
 
I got a Dumbo off of Ebay, which did require repair which was somewhat labor intensive (had to dismantle pretty much the entire thing to get to the drive mechanism, which works fine once you do some modifications to better secure the motor so it doesn't have gear slippage). Have never had any problems with my Astro Orbiter or Teacup rides.

I have monorail activator units for all three, which makes for a lot of action when my Christmas WDW set up (featuring modified monorails that have wireless direction and speed controls) goes up . The crown jewel of that setup is a modified switching station that uses servos which are also remote controlled to send the monorials (two simultaneously running) onto one of three separate track loops (one for each of the three hotels, the Grand Floridian, Contemporary and Polynesian. Layout also includes a customized Haunted Mansion that I repainted to match the colors of the WDW one and installed an audio unit in it that plays a complete recording of the stretching room narration.
 
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"I have monorail activator units for all three, which makes for a lot of action when my Christmas WDW set up (featuring modified monorails that have wireless direction and speed controls) goes up . The crown jewel of that setup is a modified switching station that uses servos which are also remote controlled..."

Photos and videos please! I really want to see this in action, it sounds WAY cool! :)
 


Hello! I just recently purchased a monorail collection from a woman. My dumbo ride is in need of repair. The motor runs but the ride does not turn. When I got it apart to look at it, thanks to the suggestions from this post, the gear looks fine. When I turn it on the gears turns, but when you put any pressure on it, as the ride would, the gears stops. It also moves back and forth on the pin. How would I fix this? Thanks.
 
Hello! I just recently purchased a monorail collection from a woman. My dumbo ride is in need of repair. The motor runs but the ride does not turn. When I got it apart to look at it, thanks to the suggestions from this post, the gear looks fine. When I turn it on the gears turns, but when you put any pressure on it, as the ride would, the gears stops. It also moves back and forth on the pin. How would I fix this? Thanks.

Sometimes the gear splits and is not tight on the shaft but the split is so small that the gear looks ok. The split is probably visible when looking through a magnifier, here is how one looks:
dl_split_pinion_0004.jpg


The only repair is a new gear and the only source I know of is NWSL.
 
It seems most of the Dumbo toy rides have a broken gear, the symptoms are: motor runs but the ride does not move. It also seems that due to the age of these toys some gears are broken even when new in the box! The gear is an odd size and difficult to find but after a long search I found the gear was available from a model railroad parts supplier I have bought from for years. I should have known they would either have the gear or would make them since that is their specialty.

The supplier is Northwest Short Line (NWSL, now owned by OsoRail), the part number is 2921-6, $9.95.

Dumbo is kind of tricky to take apart and although someone claims he is the *only* one who can do it the fact is most good modelers will figure it out*. Once apart we can remove the old gear (which is most likely cracked) and replace it with the new one.

As far as I know this also applies to Astro Orbiter; Tea Cups; and maybe other monorail playset rides.


*press out the pins and remove the four arms



2921-6 $9.95
Mod 0.6 x 8T SG x 6.04mm OD x 5.0mm face x 2.0mm bore, delrin

Thank you so much for this information! I bought a Dumbo monorail accessory from eBay and it arrived not working. The motor ran but the toy did not rotate. I found your post through a google search, ordered the gear from NWSL and fixed it myself in less than 30 minutes.
The only thing that worried me was removing those pins so I could take out the arms and remove the top for full access to the gear. So, for anyone else needing to repair this toy - I used a small punch tool to push the pins out of the arms but not totally out. Left them sticking in one side: just enough to take the arms out. With the arms out, you can completely remove the top to easily replace the gear. The original gear had been pushed all the way in but I only got the new gear flush with the edge of the pin. The arm pins had been a little difficult pushing through because of being painted over and they were a little tight, but I was able to get them back in pretty easily using needle nose pliers. Just line up the holes with the arm, put the needle nose across each side and squeeze. That pushes the pin into the perfect position as the one side of the needle nose stops the pin flush.
I love this toy now that it’s working! Thank you again for the information!
 
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Thank you so much for this information! I bought a Dumbo monorail accessory from eBay and it arrived not working. The motor ran but the toy did not rotate. I found your post through a google search, ordered the gear from NWSL and fixed it myself in less than 30 minutes.
...snip...
I love this toy now that it’s working! Thank you again for the information!

Glad to help! My model monorail "business" has three parts: 1 - modify Disney monorail models; 2 - build N scale monorails; 3 - and maybe the most important, provide information to help others with their monorail models (and Dumbo, etc.).
 
Just wanted to add to this thread that I also bought an Astro Orbiter toy that was doing the same as the Dumbo toy (motor running but toy not rotating). Replaced the gear for this with the same model gear that I used for the Dumbo toy and it now works great. It was a lot easier replacing the gear in the Astro Orbiter than it had been with the Dumbo toy. There are more screws in the bottom and some of those hold the center piece in place. When you unscrew all of them, the whole top comes off. With Dumbo, you have to remove the pins in each arm holding a Dumbo, making it much harder to get to the gear. One piece of advise on the Astro Orbiter would be to first screw in the 2 screws closest to the center when putting it back together, before screwing in any others. That's because you have to get those lined up correctly with that center piece of the toy. All the other screws will line up properly automatically.
There is a YouTube video (from 6 years ago) with a guy saying not to try this yourself; that he had broken many before he perfected fixing them and that it involved soldering. Don't be frightened by that. It's really not that hard and does not involve soldering. You pull one small gear off the pin and push another on. That's all there is to it. The only scary part is pushing those pins out of the Dumbo arms because you have to push pretty hard.
 
The company that makes the replacement gears, NorthWest Short Line is going out of business by the end of August 2019 (or sooner).
 
Just wanted to add to this thread that I also bought an Astro Orbiter toy that was doing the same as the Dumbo toy (motor running but toy not rotating). Replaced the gear for this with the same model gear that I used for the Dumbo toy and it now works great. It was a lot easier replacing the gear in the Astro Orbiter than it had been with the Dumbo toy. There are more screws in the bottom and some of those hold the center piece in place. When you unscrew all of them, the whole top comes off. With Dumbo, you have to remove the pins in each arm holding a Dumbo, making it much harder to get to the gear. One piece of advise on the Astro Orbiter would be to first screw in the 2 screws closest to the center when putting it back together, before screwing in any others. That's because you have to get those lined up correctly with that center piece of the toy. All the other screws will line up properly automatically.
There is a YouTube video (from 6 years ago) with a guy saying not to try this yourself; that he had broken many before he perfected fixing them and that it involved soldering. Don't be frightened by that. It's really not that hard and does not involve soldering. You pull one small gear off the pin and push another on. That's all there is to it. The only scary part is pushing those pins out of the Dumbo arms because you have to push pretty hard.

Great Post, thank you - very helpful! I have an Astro orbitor. The motor is running well, the gear turns on the shaft but when weight is applied, the shaft spins in side the gear and doesn't move the toy.. It doesn't appear to be cracked, but I assume the gear should fit tightly, but it slides on and off fairly easily. Also, the two bottom screws in the middle that screw into the middle piece (as you described above) are missing. I am going to find replacement screws and fix that first, but I don't think it's going to help the gear situation. When you replace the gear, should it fit tightly? Also, does the gear need to be closer to the motor, or towards the end of the shaft? Someone put a lot of grease on the shaft and the gear slides around pretty easily, that doesn't seem correct??? Thanks , any advice would be appreciated!
 
Great Post, thank you - very helpful! I have an Astro orbitor. The motor is running well, the gear turns on the shaft but when weight is applied, the shaft spins in side the gear and doesn't move the toy.. It doesn't appear to be cracked, but I assume the gear should fit tightly, but it slides on and off fairly easily. Also, the two bottom screws in the middle that screw into the middle piece (as you described above) are missing. I am going to find replacement screws and fix that first, but I don't think it's going to help the gear situation. When you replace the gear, should it fit tightly? Also, does the gear need to be closer to the motor, or towards the end of the shaft? Someone put a lot of grease on the shaft and the gear slides around pretty easily, that doesn't seem correct??? Thanks , any advice would be appreciated!

The gear should fit tightly on the shaft. A crack can be tiny and difficult to see without a magnifier (see photo). I would clean the shaft with alcohol and only lightly oil the motor bearing before replacing the gear.
NWSL is back in business (fortunately).476130
 
The gear should fit tightly on the shaft. A crack can be tiny and difficult to see without a magnifier (see photo). I would clean the shaft with alcohol and only lightly oil the motor bearing before replacing the gear.
NWSL is back in business (fortunately).View attachment 476130

Thank you! I will give that a try....
 
Wanted to give you an update, ordered the gear from NWSL, got it installed and my Astro Orbitor is working great! Since then , bought a Dumbo playset in the same condition, got me another gear and she's working great too! Thanks again for your help.... much appreciated!!
 
Wanted to give you an update, ordered the gear from NWSL, got it installed and my Astro Orbitor is working great! Since then , bought a Dumbo playset in the same condition, got me another gear and she's working great too! Thanks again for your help.... much appreciated!!
Glad to help keep these Disney toys working! :) One of the main reasons for my Monorail Modeler business is to share information about powered Disney models.
 
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I was able to do Dumbo in 3 minutes thanks to this thread, but I can't figure out how to take the top off the Astro Orbiter.
 

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