Bachmann Spectrum GE 44 ton double-ender
Scott Jay
recently. The other evening it developed a problem - the motor on one
set of trucks will not run. I took it apart and it will work if spun to
get it going, but not from a dead start. Any ideas what the problem
might be? And how to fix it (other than replace the motor)?
I asked this question on the Bachmann site, but figured I'd cover all
the bases.
Thanks
Paul Tackowiak
Problem one: It is a diesel made by Bachmann.
Easiest solution: Send it back to Bachmann, they will replace it.
Long term concern - there will always be a good chance that this
engine will fail. I've had 1 die and a second is smoking. They
are made cheap. One radical adjustment you can make to either the
44 or 70 ton switcher is to rewire the motors in series. They
will run much slower and hopefully longer, but Bachmann deisels
are notoriously self destructive.
Paul Tackowiak
Spliced
"Scott Jay" <sa...@gov.pe.ca> wrote in message
news:38DA200D...@gov.pe.ca...
> I bought one of these "beasts" last fall and haven't used it much until
> recently. The other evening it developed a problem - the motor on one
> set of trucks will not run. I took it apart and it will work if spun to
> get it going, but not from a dead start. Any ideas what the problem
> might be? And how to fix it (other than replace the motor)?
Interesting, I've never seen this phenominon in a DC motor. If it was
an AC moor it would be a simple Capactior start motor. Most likely what has
happened is that your start coils in the motor itself might have somehow
become dislodged, or the magnet might be corrupted. If you can install a
small capacitor (0.1uF) in series with the start windings (if any) and
should help it. If your not inclind to do this then take it down to your
local hobby shop. There should someone there who can fix that for you.
--
- Stu
------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.wvaa.net/airlines/timeair/
http://members.xoom.com/timeairlines/
http://members.home.net/spliced/
Let everything that has breath praise
the Lord. Praise the Lord. (Psalm 150:6)
James R Bernier
the bad segment, it will not restart. You can tear it apart and use an
multi-meter to check each winding segment(or just send it back to Bachmann). I
got a Spectrum 2-8-0 that was missing the small retainer clip fo the front
coupler. I sent a note to Bachmann and had a new retainer and coupler within 10
days.
Jim Bernier
Railerygreg
gears. I took it apart cleaned and relubed. Twice in fact. Now it runs
great and that was a few years ago. Now its decoder equipped and it runs
nice and smooth and very slow without stalling. Before it was jerky but
i lived with that.
Greg S.
--
=== Railerygreg ===
http://sites.netscape.net/agsgreg
(:>)
Home of the Shadow Mountain Ry
oooo _______
o _____ ____ _______________ __| |__
o |[] | --+++ + |shadow mountain| | smr |
Y_,_| | | smr | |[][] ry. [][]| | [] [] |
{|_ _|___|;|______|;|_______________|;|_________|;
//oo--OO oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo
######################################################################
E&M
and they had the part to me in 4 days and I live in Canada.
Cheers,
Ewen
"Spliced" <spl...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:szqC4.55905$_d.21...@news1.gvcl1.bc.home.com...
dave
now. The motors gave up on two of them. Its too bad
Bachman didnt do a better job on these units. They look
good on the layout. My GP 30 motor gave up.I have 2 Dash 8
40Bs and they do not run well together. Bachman uses a
drive system that is totally different from all other
manufactures and the results seem to be a drive that really
does not work well. No more for me.
* Sent from AltaVista http://www.altavista.com Where you can also find related Web Pages, Images, Audios, Videos, News, and Shopping. Smart is Beautiful
John Purbrick
Paul Tackowiak <paul.ta...@bms.com> wrote:
>
>
>Long term concern - there will always be a good chance that this
>engine will fail. I've had 1 die and a second is smoking. They
>are made cheap. One radical adjustment you can make to either the
>44 or 70 ton switcher is to rewire the motors in series. They
>will run much slower and hopefully longer, but Bachmann deisels
>are notoriously self destructive.
>
>Paul Tackowiak
I've done this with my unit. It's not the easiest job in the world but
the result is a model that just crawls along, the way the prototype does.
You'd better not have any long distances to cover or it can get pretty
boring! But it's great to watch it pull its quota of 3 cars max and
see the couplers tighten one at a time.
Nelson Kennedy
same as the 44 tonner I found that one truck was dead. The power lead had
NEVER been soldered on! I guess it was a case of the pre delivery check
being left to the customer. This doesn't help you because yours does kick
in with a nudge by the sound of it, but I'd be carefully checking all the
connections in case there is an intermittent fault.
Once you have both trucks running you might want to consider rewiring them
to put them in series, instead of in parallel. I haven't done it myself yet
but I've read that this will improve slow speed running and limit top speed
to a more realistic one.
--
Nelson Kennedy
Christchurch, New Zealand
Ferrymead Trams, NZR 0 gauge, a little Espee H0 are at
http://downunder.railfan.net
Honourable Association of Good Guys and Irreverent Souls
David J. Starr
the armature has opened up. You might try getting in touch with
Bachmann and trying to get a new motor (or a replacement locomotive).
Or, if you like to tinker (many folk do) you might ohm out each armature
winding and see if you can find an open one using a meter. This
probably requires taking the motor apart. Look at the windings
carefully and you should see that each armature winding comes out to a
pair of commutator slugs 180 degrees apart on the commutator. Ohm out
right across the commutator and you should see 2 or 4 or 6 windings ohm
out good (low resistance, a few ohms) and one winding read open. If
they all read open there is something wrong with your meter or your
technique. If they all read good, something else is wrong (like loose
flash in a gear box).
If you can locate an open armature winding with the ohm meter you can
fix it. First inspect the open winding visually with a magnifying
glass. Look for a broken solder joint where the winding is soldered to
the commutator. Look for a broken wire anywhere on the bad winding. If
you find one, try soldering it together and you are in business.
If you cannot find/see a broken wire, you can rewind the armature. We
used to do this on slot car motors way back when. However rewinding is a
tougher job than just soldering a loose connection. You have to find
the enamel insulated magnet wire of the same size as the original wire.
You can strip the enamel insulation with a drop of paint remover. Count
the turns of wire as you take the bad winding off and don't forget that
number. If your new wire is the same size as the old stuff you should
be able to hand wind the same number of turns back into the armature if
you wind carefully. Then solder the new winding to the commutator are
both ends.
David Starr
Fred Dabney
> now. The motors gave up on two of them. Its too bad
> Bachman didnt do a better job on these units. They look
> good on the layout. My GP 30 motor gave up.I have 2 Dash 8
> 40Bs and they do not run well together. Bachman uses a
> drive system that is totally different from all other
> manufactures and the results seem to be a drive that really
> does not work well. No more for me.
This is a constantly recurring theme. Actually the standard
Bachmann drive, as used in the majority of their HO diesel
locos (Plus and Spectrum) is almost exactly the same as the
rest of the market. Centrally mounted motor, flywheels mounted
on motor shaft, universals to a worm that mates with a spur
gear in the truck, and more spur gears to carry power down
to the axles. It's a design pioneered decades back by Athearn,
and used by everyone else from Atlas to Kato, from Walthers to
Stewart.
Where the Bachmann drive suffers is poor bearings in the worm
shaft (and apparently in the motors as well).
If you let one run dry, it squalls, howls, and chatters. Continuing
to run it that way can overload the motor so it will fail.
Those dead models you have should be covered by their warranty,
so try them to see if you can get replacement parts. And keep
the damned things oiled- motor and worm shafts...
Fred D.
Eddie T. Atkins
if that doesn't work send it back to bachmann and let them worry about.
Scott Jay wrote:
>
> I bought one of these "beasts" last fall and haven't used it much until
> recently. The other evening it developed a problem - the motor on one
> set of trucks will not run. I took it apart and it will work if spun to
> get it going, but not from a dead start. Any ideas what the problem
> might be? And how to fix it (other than replace the motor)?
>
Fred Dabney
was
> an AC moor it would be a simple Capactior start motor. Most likely
what has
> happened is that your start coils in the motor itself might have
somehow
> become dislodged, or the magnet might be corrupted. If you can
install a
> small capacitor (0.1uF) in series with the start windings (if any) and
> should help it. If your not inclind to do this then take it down to
your
> local hobby shop. There should someone there who can fix that for
you.
Nope. These motors are about as simple as you can get with anything
carrying moving parts and a commutator.
What /can/ happen is that one armature segment can burn out, or the
connection between one winding and the commutator can come loose.
In either case, the symptoms are the same: Motor will run but may
not start. If it does not start, it can usually be spun by hand and
it will then run, and it will run very roughly in either case.
Considering the time involved, I'd opt for a replacement motor
from Bachmann.
Fred D.
David J. Starr
for B&M, the old old black with red nose stripe scheme with the trucks
painted silver. Runs OK right out of the box, although I did put a drop
of oil on each worm gear just in case.
Couple of questions. What's a convincing way to weather those silver
(aluminum?) painted trucks? Light coat of rust? or mud? or did they
actually stay bright in service?
Do the worm gears want grease or oil?
Are the reversing headlights prototypical? I'm coming to like both
headlights on all the time. This way you can see the the engine is
getting power from either the front or the back.
It comes with a bunch of spidery plastic handrails that I haven't
installed yet (tonight maybe) molded in black plastic. Would they be
painted white or safety yellow for visibility? Or left black to match
the locomotive and save the effort of opening another can of paint and
cleaning the paint brush another time?
Incidentally, this model came with Kadee clone couplers and NO horn
hooks in the box. Looks like the horn-hook era is drawing to a close.
David Starr
Fred Dabney
> installed yet (tonight maybe) molded in black plastic. Would they be
> painted white or safety yellow for visibility? Or left black to match
> the locomotive and save the effort of opening another can of paint and
> cleaning the paint brush another time
Can't speak to the specific road name and era, but a typical switcher
in recent times would have white or yellow railings around the step
well, as well as white or yellow step edges. That's now a federal
mandate for safety reasons. Some roads did it a long time ago,
without having to be hit on the head first...
For those step edges, I cut them from uScale 1 or 2 inch stripes in
the appropriate color. I use a set of dividers and mark the decals
for all the steps in a set, partly cut through with a single edge
razor blade. I'm left handed so I start on the right end of the
engine so I don't smudge them as I work on the other end.
Fred D.
Fred Dabney
No, not really, not in HO and in plastic. Brass, yes but you
don't want to know, I suspect.
Actually they are among Bachmann's better efforts, although
I'd have preferred a drive which permitted flywheels but that's
me...
Fred D.
Scott Jay
motor from Bachmann or send it back for repair/replacement. I'll try the
replacement motor route first since I've had some unfortunate experiences
with other "return for repair" items. I'm not sure what Bachmann is like
for service, so...
Anyone else make these (cute - as my wife says) switchers?
Thanks again!
David J. Starr
motors, one on each truck. This solves the universal joint problem that
must be overcome with a frame mounted motor to allow the trucks to
swivel. It gives you all wheel drive. But it costs you an extra motor
compared to the Athearn/P2k/lotsa_other_makers scheme of a central frame
mounted motor driving through universal joints to both power trucks.
The locomotive is so small it is hard to see how you could sandwich in
a flywheel.
David Starr
Fred Dabney wrote:
>
> > Anyone else make these (cute - as my wife says) switchers?
>
Paul Tackowiak
Scott Jay wrote:
>
> Thanks for all the replies. The basic theme is to either get a replacement
> motor from Bachmann or send it back for repair/replacement. I'll try the
> replacement motor route first since I've had some unfortunate experiences
> with other "return for repair" items. I'm not sure what Bachmann is like
> for service, so...
>
Actually, one of the only consistent things Bachmann does is
efficient returns. Practice makes perfect I guess.
Alan Arthur
other side. this can get bent just enough so it no longer touches and
the motor won't run. Check this and put a drop of contact cleaner there
too.