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 Posted - February 21 2010 : 9:08:07 PM
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Hi All,
For the past week I have been trying to bring a "Blue Box" era Tyco 0-4-0 "shifter" locomotive that I bought on e-bay back to life, unfortunately I have run into a snag.
When I originally received the engine it would not run at all, the motor would buzz but the wheels would not turn. After taking the thing apart I discovered the main problem, the driver wheel set with the axle gear was shot. Specifically speaking, the axle gear had a quarter inch spot where the gear teeth had been completely worn away! I suspect that at some point in the past the side rod and main rod on one side of the engine managed to bind causing the worm gear to grind at the teeth until they were worn away. Frankly I find it hard to believe that the old MU-1 open framed motor had enough torque to strip out a nylon gear, but I am at a loss as to think of any other explanation for the damage. Fortunately Yardbird Classic Trains had a replacement wheel set in stock.
I then thuroughly cleaned the entire mechanism with Electronics Cleaner and then relubricated the axles and bearings with light machine oil. After reassembling the side rods and main rods I made certain that there was no binding in any of the moving parts. I removed the motor and bench tested it after cleaning it and found that it was in top condition. Satisfied that everything was in order, I reassembled the locomotive and tried to operate it on a loop of track.
HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT!!! The little locomotive needed a full 12 volts just to pull itself around the the test track. Even worse, it couldn't pull more than four cars without stalling.
I first assumed that I had made a mistake during reassembly so I took the thing apart and re-assembled it. Sadly the second attempt to test the engine produced the same results.
At this point I started to experiment with the connection between the motor and frame. My hypothesis was that the worm gear was not meshing properly with the axle gear so I tried to adjust the interaction of the two parts by inserting a Kadee truck bolster washer between the motor and the frame. I found that a .015" washer was to thick because it caused the worm gear to skip over the teeth of the axle gear. The .010" washer allowed the worm gear to engage the axle gear but performance did not improve, even worse the gear noise became noticeably louder.
OK so that didn't work, another hypothesis I came up with was that there was to much lateral play in the motor shaft. I noticed that the worm gear slid in its position over the axle gear depending on which direction the engine was running (Oh, I forgot to mention that the engine runs slightly better in reverse). So I decided to do a motor transplant substituting the original motor for a brand new one I found in an unassembled Tyco 0-4-0 shifter kit that I have. The new motor has almost no lateral play in the motor shaft so I installed it in my sick engine. The result was worse, pulling power was reduced even more than with the old motor.
Now I am out of ideas, is there something I have yet to try. Could I possibly have a mismatched gear situation? Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome...
Thanks
Srenchin
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Posted - February 22 2010 : 09:09:43 AM
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Scott: Does the motor test runs good and start smooth with jumper leads? Have you checked you tender pick up. maybe you have a poor connection somewhere. Substitute a tender you know picks up well just for a test. Look at the wire from motor brush to tender frame. It can cause this problem. A lot of little things can affect your loco running.
frank
toptrain
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Posted - February 22 2010 : 2:46:50 PM
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Hi Frank,
Thank you for the sugestion. The wire to the tender is brand new, I had to replace the original wich was broken. (Sorry, I forgot to mention that in my original post). The tender wheels are brand new nickle plated wheelsets from Yardbird Classics trains. The truck bolsters and body bolsters were all polished clean when I cleaned the locomotive. Now that you do mention it however, I have noticed that the truck journals do feel warm to the touch after I try to operate this locomotive, I supose that means I have some electrical resistance between the axles and truck side frames. (I did clean out the contact points inside the journal boxes where the axle points and truck sideframes connect so dirt should not be the problem). The motors both run smoothly in forward and reverse when they are connected directly to power leads so I think they are both OK. I'll try swaping tenders just to check however. I will report back with the results.
Scott
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Posted - February 22 2010 : 5:43:25 PM
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Holly Cats Frank!!!
I swaped tenders between my two 0-4-0 locomotives and got a suprising reaction! The performance of my troubled Shifter improved dramatically while the other unit bogged down to a crawl at full voltage!
I can't believe that I did not think to to swap the tenders on my own, I guess I assumed that they were mechanically identical so I didn't bother.
Anyway as I said, because the gremlin moved from one locomotive to the other when I swaped tenders I realized I was dealing with an electrical problem. Knowing that the needle point axles and journal boxes on the tender trucks were getting hot I figured that I needed to find an alternative method of getting power from the axles to the truck frames.
The solution was to install electrical wheel wippers that would by cary curtent from the wheels to the truck bolsters. I made my wippers by soldering a thin piece of bare coper wire to each truck's bolster and then bending the ends so that they made physical contact with the metal wheels and axles.
The end result? I now have two opperable shifters!!! Thanks Frank!
Scott
PS: I will try to upload some pictures of my wippers.
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Posted - February 22 2010 : 7:36:16 PM
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Here are some pictures of my tender modification.
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Posted - February 22 2010 : 7:39:19 PM
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I've seen conductivity issues between the truck and bolster on these engine, but not between the axles and journals. A small amount of oil in each journal can help with pickup too, and you can make wipers from spare phosphor bronze (i.e. scrap wipers or Kadee centering springs). I used some wipers in my junk box that were from a Rivarossi tender on my Big Six, and they fit perfectly.
The axle gear was likely stripped when the single screw that holds down the motor was allowed to work loose.
Edit: Nice job on those makeshift wipers! I don't think copper wire is going to flex when the wheels move, though.
The Tyco Depot
Edited by - NickelPlate759 on February 22 2010 7:42:05 PM
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