Santa Fe #218 maintenance tip?

[Robin Stone]

My Santa Fe #218 is sluggish.  It has sat for awhile and need some maintenance tips. Any help will be appreciated.  Thanks.

[Stourbridge Lion]

Robin - Welcome to trains.com!

[Prairietype]

Those Alcos are pretty simple machines, and they can be very good runners.

If it is all original, it will have two axle magnetraction and will easily pull 5-7 freight cars.

I have a number of these locomotives, and some of them were non-running, junkers.  Most come to full performance and run great. Only a few have had major motor problems and became parts suppliers.

Here's how I get them running again:

1: First, see if it will run better by propping up the motorized truck and let it run for a while in place. It helps to reverse the direction every few minutes.  It may get to be a stronger runner after warming up so to speak.

2. Second  I get the gunk gone. I use Q-tips and mineral spirits. Cleaning the chassis seems to me to help a lot.  I also use WD-40 spray.

3. Check your wires and evaluate whether the solder connections are good (I suspect they are).

4. Next, replace the brushes if they are worn. You can buy them off ebay about any day of the week, or from your local suppliers.

5. While the motor brush plate is off (two screws on the top) will allow you to slide it off, although it may take careful pulling because after years these become kind of stuck in place). You can twist the motor out and clean the gunk in the dirve shaft well (you need to carefully remove the gear box cover on the bottom of the motorized truck).  The four tabs may break if you are not careful and get in a hurry, prying this loose is tricky. Once removed you can clean the gears and gearing with mineral spirits and/or WD 40.

6. When you put the motor together, be sure to get any washers (thrust and con) back into original position.

7. Use the Q-tip to clean gunk from under the brush plate. I also use mineral spirits to clean the copper top of the armature.

8. Install the new brushes, and, holding the unit upside down will allow you to guide the armature shaft back trhough the brush plate hole without having the brushes fall free.

9. Now that you have done this, put the screws back in and give it a try.  Mine always start off running slowly for a minute or two and then all of a sudden the motor begins to speed up and then run fast.

10, After you get it actually on the track, let it run and reverse and reverse and then run it often. That's what I have done to make my locomotives run like champs.

If it becomes necessary to replace wires, your success will depend on how good you are with soldering. Good soldering takes some practice, and you can easily (with practice) produce soldering connections as nice as the originals.

You can do this-don't be intimidated.  

 

[TrainLarry]

Welcome to the board!

 Your locomotive would need a thorough cleaning and lubrication to get it running properly after a long time in storage. Here is a link to the service manual page for the loco. Remove the brushplate and armature, making sure not to lose the thrust  washers on top, and the bearing ball on the bottom of the armature. Clean all old grease and oil with naphtha (lighter fluid) from the armature, brushplate, brushes, springs, gears, axles and wheels-in other words, everything. Lightly grease the gears, add a few drops of oil to the bottom of the armature at the bearing in the truck, and reassemble the brushplate and brushes. A couple of drops of oil to the top of the armature bearing in the brushplate, and also to the axle bearings, and you're done. Clean, but do not oil, the pickup roller. This should get you running normally again.

Larry