Confused on Climax truck springs

[mickeykelley]

I've got one of the original Climax engines and am in the process of wiring it for RC. I've been reading the stuff on GIRR and am confused on the power and springs. As I see it, from the factory, each truck takes power from track thru the wheels and sends it to the motor directly thru that U strap.  I see how the spring/plunger gets power, but where does it go?  I assume to the ash pan, smoke unit and lights.  I would assume they don't pull much power, as compared to the motor.  So why are springs in the plungers getting so hot as to melt plastic, turn color and eventually fail.  Obviously I'm missing something big here.

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Mickey

This has been a problem with similar plunger and spring systems in the past.  It only takes one or two derailments resulting in a short to overheat those thin springs.  they then act more like a heating coil in a space heater, but being weak fail and melt plastic.  They seem to pull more power than one would think. This was a big problem on the 45 tonner leading many of us to hardwire the trucks and eliminating the spring and plunger system.  Unfortunately I have no experience with the climax and cannot tell you how difficult it would be to hardwire.  I can say that once I hardwired my 45 tonner, I never had a problem afterwards.

Hopefully someone will post a specific fix for the climax.

Bill

Forgot to mention that once you go battery RC you eliminate any problems due to track related shorts, but if you go RC with track power it will remain a potential problem.

[mickeykelley]

Wire around is on the GIRR site for Climax.  I was just trying to understand the issue before I did it.  Thanks for the explanation.