gp35 leaf spring electrical contacts

[pjsdad]

Hello,
I have a 6-8 year old HO "plus series" gp35. The electrical contact is a sort of leaf spring from wheel to chassis and they've become flakey. Loco speeds up/slows/stops depending on the curve of the track as the trucks turn..
I've tried cleaning/sanding and bending the springs and only made it worse. Now i go the the web site looking for parts and a see new trucks that appear to have direct wire linkages from truck to chassis. 
Thinking of hard wiring mine - anybody tried it? I  guess i need to still rely on the spring to wheel contact and somehow connect a wire to the spring as the truck frame is mostly plastic.
If that doesn't go, can I upgrade to the new trucks? $10/per isn't bad but I don't obviously want to find they simply don't fit..

G

[Jim Banner]

Hello pjsdad,

Are we talking about semi-circular springs as shown at C in the photo below?  This is in an H16-44 but was used in many Bachmann models.  In the photo, half of the frame has been removed, revealing the motor, flywheels and gear towers.  And the springs.



With these, it is usually where the semi-circular springs rub on the bottoms of the two halves of the frame where the problem occurs.  And usually it is the frame parts, not the bronze springs that need cleaning.  Once clean, a little conductive oil works wonders.

Jim

[bobwrgt]

The frame area needs to be cleaned. This usually helps. On a few i have soldered a small wire to the wiper strip and directly to the motor. Works much better.

Bob

[jonathan]

Like Jim and Bob have written, I have clean the area of the frame where the leaf spring touches.  I used a little rubbing alcohon with a cotton swab.  Then, added a tiny drop of conductalube to the top of the leaf spring. It worked very well.

I have hardwired old Athearn Locomotives, but haven't had to do it on a Bachmann loco, yet.

Regards,

Jonathan

[pjsdad]

that's it exactly.  I'll have to get some conductalube and take another shot at cleaning.  I think my real problem though is i've got lots of 18 inch and some even tighter curves and they've taken a toll on the shape of the springs..


Thanks!

[pjsdad]

just a little update. You probably cant see in these poor pics but my spring is actually broken.  This does not seem to be an available replacement part, at least i can only find numbers for the whole truck.



Anyway i managed to attach wires to the spring mount screws and run them to the chasis -- it now runs fine so at least i know for sure that's the problem.



The trouble im running into now is my first pass at attaching the wires to the chassis doesn't allow the shell to fit.. any thoughts on that welcome. The darn thing is pretty snug everywhere.

[ACY]

You need to upload your photos to photobucket or another similar site first then copy the image location and paste it inbetween this {img}copied image location goes here{/img} replace { with [.

[pjsdad]

thanks!

Anybody know where to get micro- size wire connectors (eg spade lugs for #2 or smaller lug)?