I see! The fix was in front of me all the time.

I am converting the Climax to Kadee couplers and hadn't done the front couple. There is a couple pocket reinforcement part in the Kadee packet that mounts on the back of the pilot beam. It will stop the front truck from swiveling so far. Now back to the bench to install it.

Thank you for the reply

Art

Sometimes when my Climax derails the square metal rod drops out of the plastic channel on the front drive. This is the part of the drive train that powers the cylinders from the front motor. I have to roll it on its back and turn the trucks at an extreme angle to reconnect the drive. It looks like the rod or plastic sleeve are too short. Does anyone have a permanent fix for this problem. Of course I could derail less, but the grand kids have a habit of backing into the end of track bumpers at speed.

Thank you Art

I fixed the pick-up problem.

When I was lubricating my Climax, I tested each wheel with leads from my power pack. I found that some wheels were not picking up power and I think that was leading to stalls. I investigated and found that the small springs behind the plungers that rub against the inside of the wheels were collapsed. These are not shown on the exploded view of my manual, but show in the picture on page 9 - just to the right back of the wheel) Those wheels were not making contact and were the ones that were "dead". I expanded the springs using the tip of a screw driver and reassempled the  the spring, plunger and ball bearing and stuffed it back in the truck assembly. It would probably have been better to replace the springs, but I didn't have any handy. I expect the heat treating of the spring material was not carried out right and the springs were soft. If you take yours apart be careful - there is a plunger, a ball bearing (BB size) and a spring and they fly all over.

Hope this helps.