power problems with a 45 toner

[Rebel]

 I am having problems with a bachman 45 ton locomotive . It ran fine for a little over a  year and then I started having problems with  one of the trucks  . the engine would run fine  running foward, but when you reverse it  one of the trucks would  run  for a couple of inches and then quit running .and would just drag.The other truck however would still be running .
I am not an electrical genious, and I have heard of the problems with the  tension springs  on the electrical pickups . I have pushed on the sides or rocked the bad truck and it  started running again.
I have checked all the wiring and everything seems to be ok,  I have also noticed that when the engine is running foward the rear headlight flickers
  Any Ideas anyone??  Thanks

[Superheater]

There was a discussion some time back on this board about the plunger contacts wearing out between the trucks and the body of the engine.  There have also been reported problems with the pickups in the actual trucks on some units.  You may be able to search it up.

As I recall, there was a guy who knew a lot about these engines, had several of them.  I think he was in Australia or New Zeland, but he visited this board frequently.

John Fitch

[Dave]

you spell it " New Zealand"John.

                    Dave

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Here is my earlier post about this problem!!

The 45 tonner uses plungers and springs to get power to and from the trucks.  In 95% of the cases one or more of these springs get overheated and melts down causing a loss of power either from the track to the circuit board or from the circuit board to the motors in the truck.  If one truck is working fine and the other is balking this is almost certainly the problem.  Sometime wiggling the unit from side to side will cause it to move and then stop when the wiggling stops, if this is the case it is definitely a cooked spring.   

The best way to fix the unit is to hardwire it by removing the springs and plungers and soldering flexible wire in place of the springs.   If you send the unit in for repair they will just replace the springs and the next time you derail the unit and have a short the springs will cook again. 

If you can trace a wire and have soldering skills you will be able do this fix.  Look where the plungers ends slide on the truck plate, solder a wire from that point on the plate to the corresponding  point where the plunger wire goes to the circuit board.   Repeat for all plungers and on both trucks and you will have an excellent running locomotive.  A bit tedious but well worth the results. 

Hope this helps.