N Scale 4-4-0 Tender wheel adjustment

[TJDBIKE]

Does anyone know how to prevent these 4-4-0's from just doing the sit and spin. Locomotives have new traction tires and Tenders have new trucks but the sit and spin issue still prevails. Is there a way to adjust the Tender truck wheels to allow it to roll?

[brokemoto]

What version of this do you have?   The performance of these things, until recently, tended to vary wildly.   GF has an early version that runs and pulls well.  I have had several that could not get out of their own way.

The last of the cardboard box versions of these were not bad.  The most recent, that come in a plastic box are pretty good,  B-mann has made some improvements to them.

If you have an older version, there ain't much help for it.  You can try to work the wheels on the tender, if they are locking up.   A little bit of LaBelle 106 (teflon grease) or some MT/Kadee grease-'em (graphite lubricant) might help. 

Sometimes it is the connexion between locomotive and tender that will cause a problem, as the adjustment of the screw might be lifting the drivers off the track .  Usually, the pilot rides rather high on these, but I have seen pilots that scraped the track and caused problems.

If the truck pivots are causing problems, a slight flick-of-the--wrist loosening might help.

What do the ends of the driveshaft look like?   If they are hexagonal, you have the oldest versions of this and there is not much to be done for them.  If you have the universal joint end (ball and pins), you might be able to help it, you might not.   If you bought this one new and it has the plastic box, you may be able to send it in to B-mann under warranty.

[Mike C]

If this is an older locomotive and the tender wheels are not wanting to roll you may have a problem . The older models are subject to "zinc pest" , the metal they were made from is likely contaminated with other metals . This makes the zinc swell and eventually rot . There's nothing much that you can do about it , there was a long discussion on Trainboard.com a couple of years ago when someone tried to fix an older 4-4-0 without much success .  If the wheels roll a little  you may try to gently bend the frames out very slightly , but be careful as the metal is fragile . Also as BM said , check the connection between the loco and tender to see if the tender is forcing the loco to loose contact with the track .

[TJDBIKE]

Mike C. I did put new sets of trucks on both of them along with some graphite. I'll try to flex the trucks now to see if it will make any difference.

Other than making my own new style drive shafts PN-9852-1 which have been sold out for more than a year does anyone have a new source for these. I did try some ones from Atlas but they are to long.