Thanks Bill appreciate that wisdom
While the pickups against the back of the wheels have springs, there appears to be no springs on the pins that transmit power from the truck to the copper strips on the bottom of the bunker.  It seems to just use gravity the push the truck up against the pins and the copper strips. Sorta amazing it works at all!

While I have 6 or 7 battery locos, be a long time before I get to doing battery conversions on all the fleet, I hope you can appreciate   

Jerry

Thanks Mickey- I need to do some more exploration of why that contact is bad and what it would take to hard wire the truck into the circuit board

Regards

Jerry

Mickey- ? If you mean the pickups on the wheels, they are fine.  The problem is the "pins" that carry power to the motor that rub on the plate on the top of the motor and on the copper strip above the truck.

I determined by appplying power with probes that the connection to the motor from the board is broken at the upper copper strip that the gray pin is supposed to be touching

Thanks

Jerry

Hi All

Chapter two in the faulty pickup adventure (there are 4 chapters...;(  )

My Heisler, not sure how old, but had little running, had been fussy as the rear truck would stall now and then.  I finally put it on the bench, and using the power supply determined that rear truck was not operating properly. The truck is suspended under the bunker with a screw into a rod, and there are 4 contacts two for motor and two for pickups.  These use copper strips on top of motor block and a system of 4 pins, two brass ones which I think are pickup power up and two gray metal ones which I think are motor power down.  They contact a set of 4 thin copper strips under a plastic piece in the bunker.
This allows the truck to swivel and tip. Well, the 4 screws that hold the upper contact plate in place had unscrewed themselves (?) but somehow due to residual magnetism, were still hanging around.  So I put them back, cleaned both contact surfaces and put it back hoping for a cure, but, still having a contact problem.  Testing seems to indicate power from the board to the motor is present, but I am having a loss of power to the motor from where the gray pin contacts the upper copper strips.  I do not see where to go from here as the upper copper strips seem intact.  The gray pins do not seem to drop down and up as freely as the brass looking pins that conduct power up from the truck.  I would welcome any thoughts on this issue
Thanks

Jerry

Well, there have been some very interesting discussions on various forums on conductive lubricants, such as are they really conductive, etc?  So just use what seems to work for you.

Jerry

Re: Spray and lube products;
I clean pickups with Radio Shack (RIP) spray electronics cleaner and lube.
I lubricate with the model railroad lube kit by Labelle. Those kits have three products, a # 106 PTFE grease, #102 gear oil and either #107 medium oil or #108 light oil.  As far as the BM ball or roller pickups, I use a sparing drop of #108.  #107 and 108 are labelled as conductive oils.

I do not use BM Ezlube light conductive oil.  Oddly I find that product freezes in the winter leading me to trust the Labelle products more.

Jerry

Thanks Stan and Bill for the suggestions. Some further information, I tested the loco by touching wire from a power supply to the wheels, and crossed over, and was able to determine that one driver wheel, rear axel on engineer's side was not picking up.  So I sprayed again and lubed and it seems to have returned. However, that testing also revealed that the rear truck, which has pickups and should help with running, is flawed.  Both wheels on the fireman's side are not picking up.  So there must be a broken or loose wire between the truck and the board or motors.  I am reluctant to take the body apart to trace the problem since it is still under 1 year warranty.
  So Bill I will call Bachmann and see what they say.  The only battery mod I have done is just run wires from the battery terminal on the board out the back end to plug into a trailing car. 

Thanks again

Jerry

I have the Bachmann Spektrum 2-4-4 Forney locomotive. It began to stutter on my track powered layout. It had previously been a very smooth and powerfull performer. I took it to the workbench to clean the wheels. I do that by putting the loco on her side and touching power supply wires to the wheels and using alcohol and a Qtip to clean wheels.
Well, applying power to the two rear drive wheels, and wheels spin.
Apply power to the two forward drive wheels, and nothing. Ah ah, it seems there is no pickup from those drivers. Both sets of drivers have the little spinning wheel pickups, they appear intact. Cleaned them with spray electronics cleaner, still no aparent pickup. BTW, loco runs fine on battery power.

It is less then an year old so I can send for repair for cost of shipping, but wanted to ask for any obvious issues others may have had?

Thanks

Jerry

I talked to Rich from Bachmann at ECLSTS.  My 3 truck shay wires broke and I needed a new 8 pin plug and wires.  He sent the part to me gratis.

I appreciate the customer service

Jerry

Gents-

Thanks for the consistent advice.  Will do.  Now to repair those tiny wires.  I saw a tip that says to use the small wires from the multiple old computer cables we all have around in a desk somewhere when you need a little wire for repairs.

Now to figure out how to get them into those little holes in the back of the plug......anyone know best way to do that? 

Jerry

Greetings:

The wire from the locomotive to the tender that terminates in a long white plug that is inserted into the front bottom of the tender has lost 3 or 4 of the tiny wires which fatigue and break at the back of the male connector.  While I could probably patch the wires up and try to put them back into the plug, it will likely happen again due to the small wires and lack of strain relief.  Has anyone come up with a more robust wire/plug installation or repair for this situation?

Thanks

Jerry

Thanks Kevin, I apreciate the advice

Jerry

I bought a new rail truck 4 months ago, and recently took it out to see how it ran.  Ran it on my layout, runs OK, then put it on Bachman rollers static to help break it in.

That is when I noticed that the right rear wheel was not turning true.  Careful examination seemed to indicate that the drive mechanism rear transmission and axel are OK.  However the right rear drive wheel is not quite perpendicular to the axle.  It has a slight oscillation when it turns which makes the rear of the car wobble somewhat.  I very gently tugged on the wheel,it does not change its position on the axle and since the axle looks very fragile so I did not put any pressure on it. 

Any suggestions concerning this issue?  Might this result in long term risk to something in the drive train or just a little goose like wiggle?    Thoughts appreciated

Jerry

Barry-

Thanks for the reply and info.  That was just what I was looking for to get those wires out of the small washer holes.
Regards

Jerry

I decided to add weight to the front truck of my Annie, a recent model.  Took the bottom plate off to get at the truck, and discovered that there are 2 wires, red and black that come from the truck for power pickup.  They both come up from the truck through the spring, then through tiny holes in a washer and up to the motor area.

The red wire from the truck has "delaminated" with the insulation separating from the wire over about 1 1/2 inch of wire, including it seems the wire coming through the hole in the washer.  That is one tiny hole and small dia wire. 

Does anyone know the gauge of the wire and a source for this as it must be the right size to go through the washer.  Or an alternative approach to repair this?  I am concerned about a short developing with the exposed wire.

Thanks

Jerry