... Rail Truck .. gears split

[smcgill]

Hello one and all.
I set my rail truck on the track to give it a run ... whining noise .... tried to move .. gave it a push .. I'm thinking split gears..
Note: the rail truck has been sitting for a while .. could the gear split from age? 
How do I tell which production I have?
Thanks

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Hi smcgill,

Hard to say what the problem is without taking it apart.  The link below may be helpful so check it out, it has very detailed info on several fixes and improvements as well as specific teardown instructions:

http://girr.org/girr/tips/tips8/bachmann_railtruck_tips.html

As of now I know of no way to tell apart one run from another.  The railtruck was a huge success and Bachmann did make fixes with the problem related to the screw length mentioned in the above link, but the improvements did not fix the surge situation mentioned in the link.  My own railtruck did have the correct screw length in the gearbox so that fix was made in the later run.  The later run(s) were in large numbers which ended up in a glut of railtrucks which resulted in some super low prices for this beauty.

I definitely enjoy my modified railtruck and added a enclosed rear and a trailer made form the handcar trailer.  Them hogs sure stink!!


Hoping this point you in the right direction!

Loco Bill

[smcgill]

Bill
What I did find is that the beginning of the drive shaft assembly (pic below), is spinning on the shaft of the gear assembly that is located under the black metal strap , were we replaced the long screws with the shorter one as described by Dave.
The Motor and all the gearing up to that point works great.
I'm thinking of trying to drill thru the black plastic then thru the brass shaft on thru and installing a wire as a pin.

Do you have a better fix?

Sean

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Sean,

Drilling is a great idea, but I know I am not good enough to do it with the necessary precision.

Can you tell if there were any splines on the shaft the gear was spinning on?  Perhaps you could rough up the shaft and epoxy putty it.  I am not crazy about the epoxy idea, but I can't think of any thing else.

You could try calling service and see if they can provide a gear on the shaft.  The parts diagram does have and exploded diagram showing the gears.

Anybody out there have a fix for Sean???

Bill

[smcgill]

Bill
There is something there .. I  can feel it when I spin it by hand .. It's snug so I'm not going to try to remove it ... Grease and oil are a given so that's why the wire idea.
Sean

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Sean,

If you have the skill to drill go ahead and try it if no one has any better ideas.

Bill

[smcgill]

I will post a pic , when I get time to fix this.

The black plastic just spins on the shaft.
I will drill and pass some wire thru the hole and wrap it a couple of times and end it with a small twist.

[Kevin Strong]

I did that on a Berlyn Goose that had a cracked universal joint. The fix works great.

Later,

K

[smcgill]

Ok this is how I found it.


This is it fixed.

We should be good to go.
I will report back as to how well it worked. 

[smcgill]

Ok now we're rolling ! Ha!
I installed the fixed gear ... Funny no improvement ...
Hmmmm Lets look @ this a little closer .. Ha Ha .. Cracked , not slipping on the shaft as thought !
 



Sigh .. I will try to clean it very well, them try some glue and cross my fingers!

[smcgill]

Gave it a bath in simple green ... washed it off .. set it over night to dry.
Gorilla glue was applied .. working great on my bench .. hopefully it's fixed.
Bill ...  thanks for the link : http://girr.org/girr/tips/tips8/bachmann_railtruck_tips.html
This was very helpfull.
Sean

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Most welcome Sean,

Glad you got it fixed, shame about the initial diagnosis being wrong, but you can bet that wiring it will be great in the long run.

The link is great and I am thankful to George for it, there are a lot smarter guys out there than I am, and George is one of them.

Let us know how the gorilla glue works out. 

Have some great holiday running!!

Bill