New Climax DCC front truck problem

[grippa]

I have a DCC version of the new Climax and have a problem with the front truck. I have not had it long (2 weeks). The loco has been lubricated and run only on test rollers or  a bit of clean test track.
The front truck seems to have problems running evenly at slow speed or running fast at higher settings of the controller.
I have tested the front truck with the drive line disengaged and it seems better but it does not seem to have a great amount of torque when compared to the rear.
I have tested the drive line on its own and it is free running.
Could the pick-ups be at fault or even the motor itself?
The DCC board is working fine as all functions are operating as is speed control (taken with the rear truck as reference)

[grippa]

This is a bump.  
Has anyone got an idea why the front truck might be misbehavining?

[Kevin Strong]

I doubt that it's a pick-up issue, as the power should be fed from the brains of the loco evenly to both trucks. My guess would be the contacts between the front truck and the frame. I would remove the front truck and make sure the contacts are clean and making good contact, and run power to the motor directly to make sure it's running smoothly. Instructions to do that are in the Climax documents that you got with the loco, or can be found under the "Parts, Service, & Information" tab above.

Good luck, and let us know what you find out. I'm in the process of rebuilding one myself, and had the front truck not run as well for a brief period of time during a quick test. It went back to working and I couldn't recreate the problem, but I'm keeping my eye on it as well. I haven't dropped the truck yet to troubleshoot. I'll probably do that for final painting anyway.

Later,

K

[grippa]

Hi again Kevin

I had thought that it might be a contact problem somewhere but thanks to your tip I now realise that of course if the DCC board is pumping power out to the rear truck then the pickups should be fine. So there is something awry from decoder back to front truck. I will process the manual and any tips for dropping the front truck to investigate. 
Many thanks for your wise input again.
As an aside...a friend came over today and I showed him the C19 drive train QSI very slow speed acceleration behaviour scenario. He just said '"That slow speed acceleration looks darn good!".  So perhaps I am too finnicky and too close to the problem.