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 Posted - October 12 2019 : 8:02:05 PM
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So everything was going fine, until I popped the gear box to add a dab of grease. Now
it seems this vertical strip will no longer contact whatever element is necessary to
draw positive power from the truck wheels. Worse, if it touches the other lateral,
horizontal strip, it shorts, and Athearn appears to have left about 1/8th of an inch
gap between the two strips, which allows them to brush each other frequently. So,
I added a dab of super glue to to the horizontal strip to keep it from wandering into
the vertical strip, but still cannot get the vertical strip to pull power off one side
of the truck wheels.
Any ideas?
Yes, my soldering is lousy, I think the old iron doesn't heat up nearly enough.
Edited by - Chops124 on October 12 2019 8:02:58 PM
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Posted - October 12 2019 : 8:25:43 PM
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A guess... you may have severed the ground to that truck by cutting the frame.
Also make sure that contact on that truck is on the same side as the truck on the other end.
HTH
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Posted - October 12 2019 : 8:52:33 PM
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Thanks AF, but nope, the truck powered up good until I
popped the gear box, after that one side, the side to the
vertical connecter strip, won't pick up.
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Posted - October 13 2019 : 12:24:11 AM
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Finally dawned on me to look this up on YouTube and quickly got a
useful DIY video about taking Athearn trucks apart. It would appear
that two rivets hold on the positive and negative metal strips that
pick up from the wheels. Somehow I loosened up the strips off
their respective rivets breaking the circuit. Hopefully I can solder
this up and be on my way, finally.
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Posted - October 13 2019 : 10:07:46 AM
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| When the strip comes off the truck 99% of the time the truck has to be replaced.
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Posted - October 13 2019 : 12:20:57 PM
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Oh, oh... and there was hardly anything holding these strips on
to begin with. If that won't solder up, will have to find tiny
screws, maybe just delete the strips and use connecting wire.
Such a flimsy design, worthy of Bachmann.
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Posted - October 13 2019 : 5:42:14 PM
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So, having tried to solder in the strips back onto the cruddy rivets, that failed, and the joint
was so brittle it never even conducted electricity. In doing so, I managed to slightly melt one
the gear posts, and part of the gear cover, so I had to take a dull scissor edge, all I had handy,
and ream off the burrs that I made. 
In a Hail Mary effort, I gently tapped the strips back onto those horrendous rivet heads and secured them with some super glue. I reassembled the truck and when I tried to slide it back into the chassis, that's when I
realized I had glued the strips in backwards. Of course, why wouldn't I?  
Took it all apart again, pried off the strips from the glue, again used a dull scissor edge to
scrape off the encrusted super glue, and to ream out the holes in the collector strips, again
tap them into position, more super glue, lost a bearing and had to search it out for ten minutes,
reassembled the whole deal, got it in the chassis, applied power to the wheels and...
SUCCESS!  Before I screw anything else up, going to mate the chassis parts into the
shell and maybe I get to run it tonight!! or not  , will see if I have any
energy left over 
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Posted - October 13 2019 : 10:09:05 PM
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| You are dangerous with tools and glue....
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Posted - October 13 2019 : 11:36:31 PM
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Wait to see you see my clamp! Anyways, before I screwed it
up again I mixed up some JB Weld, spent another hour
lining up the motorized chassis- too deep and the fly wheel
would press on the inner roof, too low, the chassis would
hang below the shell. Got it as close as I could and
clamped the dang thing. Going to let it cure for 24 hours,
then off to the races, I hope, on my day off Monday.
Jeepers, I have three weeks of intermittent cuts, burns,
tears, sweat into this thing.
I am amazed at some the kitbashing and scratch building
that goes on in here; I'm lucky to clap this booger
together.
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Posted - October 14 2019 : 4:20:11 PM
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| They make still make a Electronic JB Weld used for electrical applications.
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Posted - October 15 2019 : 01:19:15 AM
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| So the drive chassis is mounted permanently to the shell now?
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Posted - October 15 2019 : 02:02:11 AM
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Yep, had to hose that mama on tight. If it shifted a
millimeter up the fly wheel rubbed the shell, if a
millimeter down, it hung out like a bad tooth,
too much forward the ladders fouled the trucks,
too little to the back it swallowed the coupler.
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Posted - October 31 2019 : 10:54:09 AM
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But, after all that I ended up with a solid pulling, solid running
E 60:
https://youtu.be/_jRyUITvEbA
https://youtu.be/W51h5AVVP8E
The ATSF stubby E60 is a Bachmann piece with original
PT motor, that after a little adjustment to the motor
brushes, has so far withstood the test of use. I hold my
breath everytime I take it out for a spin.
Edited by - Chops124 on October 31 2019 11:01:46 AM
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Posted - October 31 2019 : 9:26:58 PM
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| I'm no fan of Bachmann pancakes, but it seems like the things are either good or bad. Meaning, I've had very little to no luck reviving ones the fail or run poorly, but I have a handful of runners that defy their reputation and run fine. Kind of the luck of the draw you might say.
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Posted - November 01 2019 : 10:28:16 AM
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| YUP.
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Posted - November 03 2019 : 7:28:02 PM
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The only issue I have with Bachmann pancake motors (at least in the 80s/90s ones e.g. F7/F9) is not the motor itself, but the reduction gears cracking, there is simply nowhere to buy compatible replacements (or if there is, some tell me already!) - I have three Bachmann Fs (two F9s and an F7) and they all have cracked gears, always the same ones on the drive axles.
One of the Fs I bought for next to nothing off eBay ("doesn't work, for parts only") was brought back from near death. The motor was chock full of hair and stale oil and did nothing whatsoever but buzz with the headlight on. After disassembling the motor, cleaning absolutely everything, reassembling it and giving it a drop of oil, the loco ran like new, although it took a few laps of the layout before it was able to run as well as my first one.
I only wish my Athearn motor (identical to the one in this topic) was even half as good, but all it does is push up the amps, overheat the controller and shut everything off in five minutes. I think it's the magnet, but I have no idea how to replace it with something better like neodymium or whatever (just like my others, it's an F-unit), mainly because the magnet itself also doubles as the motor housing. The loco runs fine by itself, but once you put even the slightest bit of weight behind it the loco slows to a crawl - I'm sure an Athearn is not limited to dragging all of three 40' freight cars!
Edited by - Heihachi_73 on November 03 2019 7:32:48 PM
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