Thank you very much Rich, I will go look at those firm's parts!

Hello Everyone!
I am looking to convert a HO 80 Ton 3 Truck Shay that I bought as a coal burner to an oil burner. I need to get my hands on a tapered stack and an oil load. If anyone has any of these can you let me know. Bachmann doesn't seem to make these parts anymore and I'd really like to convert this engine.
Thanks,
Trevor

Hi all,
A friend of mine has a Tsunami decoder that came out of a 2011 G scale Climax. He replaced it with a Phoenix decoder and has offered to give it to me. I have a Spectrum G Scale 0-4-0, which we are planning to convert to Airwire and battery operation. I want to use the Tsunami as the sound decoder for the engine and I have a plan as to how to fit it since it's a board. I do have a couple of questions about it. I want to know if when it was in the Climax, did the board run the engine directly or did it go through another decoder to handle the voltage? Does the Tsunami handle the amp draw of the porter on its own? Thanks and please let me know.
Trevor

I am back and pleased to report that my 9 year old now has a working Climax engine... after a great deal of work. 

Based upon my tests, I assumed that the motor was burned out.  I wrote a short email to Bachmann trains what they could do and within 48 hours of writing the email I received a followup call from Bachmann.  They offered to either replace the engine with a Shay or to sell me a new motor.  I chose the new motor.

Replacing the motor took a little under an hour.  It was immediately apparent that replacing the motor solved one problem but revealed another.  The tappered gear on the front drive shaft spun on the spline because the many of the gears on the front truck were binding against each other.

For the next 3 hours I cleaned each gear in the front truck assembly and glued each tapered gear to its driveshaft.  Two of the gears had split on the rotating axis and had to be glued together before they could be placed back on the drive shafts.  Boy, the things we do for love.

Well, the engine is now working and all eight wheels are driving.  My 9 year old now has his geared loco collection of a Shay, Heisler and Climax.  Now keeping them all running is another story.

I guarantee that somehow, someway my 9 year old will end up with a Climax.  He has a Shay and a Heisler.  The Climax is apparently a must have for him so that he can have a complete geared collection.  He is already asking for a list of chores in order to raise the funds.

On Tuesday I plan to take apart the Climax.  I am doubtful that I will be able to fix it but I plan to at least find the problem.

Thank you everyone for your comments.  I will update you and answer some of your questions.  I purchased the Climax on Ebay from a private party so now I know that there will be no warranty.  The item was sold as "mint brand new" and I believe it was.    There are no signs of wear on the engine, gears or drivetrain.

I have isolated the motor from all the external gears and it simply does not respond to power.  However, it also does not show any sign of a short.

So, I have a great parts engine for everything but the motor.  Since most of the comments on this board are about failed gears in the drive system then I guess there is some value there.

Thank you again for all your comments

I am reporting back as requested....
richG... I used a multi meter and read the resistance across the motor.  It checked out at about the same as the Bachmann Shay we have at 105.

I also supplied connected a DC 00 transformer directly to the motor and got nothing.  I suspect the motor is dead....

Since I purchased this engine on Ebay as a Christmas gift for my son, I am not hopeful that the seller will take it back.  This means that I will be sending it back to Bachmann.  I am gathering from the comments left by "WoundedBear" that they will not fix this problem and that I will end up with another Shay.

If any of you have any suggestions of a location that would be willing to fix this "new" climax, please let me know.

Thank you.

My original message was not clear.  When I referred to the engine "not making any noise" I was referring to the actual electrical motor noise that a DCC ready engine makes when run on a 00 DCC system.  I was not referring to a DDC sound system. 

So, to restate the problem.  There are no lights and no electrical motor operation when the decoder is installed.  When the decoder is removed and the jumpers are installed, both the forward and back lights operate but the electric motor does not operate.

Thank you

My 9 year old son just tried to run his Christmas present locomotive.  It is a Spectrum Climax loco and he is very disappointed that the engine appears to be dead. 

The only life it shows is that when the jumpers are installed and it is run on 00, both lights come on.  However, there is none of the engine noise that we hear when his Shay and Heisler are run on 00.
When we install the decoder in the Climax, it is completely dead (not even a light comes on).

Does anyone have a suggestion... or should I send this new engine to Bachmann.

Thank you,
mp