Climax with tsunami starts and stops

[trmwf]

Finally got around to running my new climax with the tsunami sound system.  Sounds great and runs great....when it runs.  Received it Saturday and tried it out yesterday only to find that it might run 2 feet, it might run 20 feet, it might run 200 feet, then all goes quiet, lights go out and it stops cold.  A few seconds later, everything might come back to life on its' own or I might have to "nudge" it slightly to get it back to life.  Then the cycle repeats itself with no knowing how far or how long it will run.  Does this sound like something the service dept. is going to have to take of??

Mike

[therentster]

Good luck Mike.  I've had to return two Forneys for the exact same thing and they now have a third back in their shops for the same thing also.  Bottom line here one good one out of four!! Good luck.

Neil
Maine

[Steve Magee]

I have two and have the same problem with both of them. One has a Tsu1000 Light Logger fitted - just! - and the other is the "Soundtraxx" Climax with the custom Soundtraxx Tsunami chip. The same on both to a greater or lesser extent. And be careful with the nudges - the drive line plastic gears are very fragile and one nudge too many will result in the gears burring over.

One is on the repair track, waiting for a new gear set from Bachmann (waiting now for 4 months), the other is being thoroughly dismantled in a bid to find out just where the problem is - I am thinking pick-up path but will see. So far have dismantled trucks, polished both wheel treads and wheel backs, cleaned contact wiper strips and rebent it to ensure contact and cleaned the contact between the wipers and the pads on either side of the bolster, and applied CRC Contact Cleaner/Lubricant. Will be working more on it tomorrow.

Beautiful loco, but 10/10 for appearance, 2/10 for design/reliability.


Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

[Steve Magee]

An update to my previous post. The pick-up problem seems to be solved by the steps I listed. But ....

One of the gears in the transfer case (p/n *0AH03) was found to be chewed out on the smaller gear. I was able to substitute this gear from my other non-working Climax, just another part to order as a replacement I guess.

Anyway, with all the above done, it now runs correctly. If you dont wish to return the loco to Bachmann, then the pick-up remedy I listed above will probably do the trick. Won't help much for the gear problem though, but unlikely that this has occured on your loco - yet.

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

[br549]

  My Climax did the same thing with the soundtraxx card in it. seems my troubles was in the circuit boards . a slight jiggle and off it would go for a few feet if I were lucky. if you moved the circuit board ( the soundtraxx unit)  to its sweet spot it worked for a short time.  So,  I re-touched  the solder joints on the boards and it's doing fine. "Knock on wood"
Next time a TSU750 will be used instead.