Does it not look like the one in this picture?
http://pictures.olsenstoy.com/cd/locos/f3-6.pdf
Bob Nelson
Thank you very much for the info! but I'm looking and I cant see any of the "fingers" that are supposed to be touching the E unit. Am I just not seeing them or are they not there? it looks different then the E unit on my other engines
"No childhood should be without a train!"
I agree with Bob -- it sounds like one of the e-unit fingers is not making complete contact with the drum. It may be because of wear, crud lodged under the finger or breakage. It happened to me recently. First thing I'd do would be to spray contact cleaner all over the drum and cycle it a few times, to see if that helps. If not, you'll have to look deeper.
Okay, that sounds like an e-unit finger not making good contact with the drum. If you can get to the fingers with a toothpick (or the like), put the locomotive into what should be forward and then touch each finger in turn with the toothpick. If touching one of them makes it start, you've found the problem.
If you have to unfasten the e-unit from the frame to be able to get to some of the fingers, be sure to make an electrical connection between the e-unit frame and the locomotive frame, for it to work properly.
Once you locate the bad finger, it may be possible to fix it without disassembling the e-unit. Let us know; and I'll talk you through that if you want.
Every fourth time.
Did you really mean to post "idle, idle, reverse, idle, idle, reverse" and not "idle, idle, idle, reverse, idle, idle, idle, reverse"? In other words, do you get reverse every third time you start the locomotive or every fourth time?
My 2343 has been acting strange lately... first while running in forward it would slow down and speed up at random as if it was getting stuck for a second then going normal again. I checked under the shell and everything seemed fne, nothing stuck an theres enough oil. now it only runs backwards! insted of forward, idle, reverse, idle, and so on, it goes idle, idle, reverse, idle, idle, reverse and just skips forward. theres no motor strain or anything when it should be going forward. it seems to skip the position all together! anyone know whats wrong? im guessing something with the E unit?
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