What's the buzz? Tell me what's a happenin?
My AF 310 Pacific was running fine until long about October then it started doing this:
The E-Unit drum and fingers are very clean by the way.
Any guesses where to look?
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Hi Becky!
you'll probably have to break it down to the basics. Clean the brushes, brush tubes, and commutator. My 290 occasionally has an issue with the brush tubes gunking up, then the brushes stick and don't even touch the commutator. So, give it a good cleaning, make sure the brushes aren't too short, check for broken wiring.
Paul
I don't own any A-F locomotives, but if it was one of my Lionels I'd check to see if there was any voltage getting to the motor. Obviously there's juice getting to the unit, the light's coming on and the e-unit's clicking away.
Can you rotate the drivers by hand like you can a Lionel postwar? I wonder if there's something "freezing" them in place? My 736's drivers locked up the other day and the culprit was a tiny lockwasher one of the wheels picked up from the workbench, it was jammed between one of the drivers and the frame. Amazing, the Magne-Traction's still good after 66 years! Anyway, the 736 was acting very similarly to what yours is doing.
Paul's suggestions are good too, nothing I can add.
Goes without saying, let us know what happens.
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The center-left wiring diagram shows how to wire up motors without a reverse unit to see if the motor itself can run. Reverse the brush connections to get the motor to run in reverse.
Your video shows what seems to be the brush springs may not be exerting full pressure on the brushes.
Larry
Hi Becky. I would check the fingers again, I have had them look clean but found out they were worn thru and there was a tiny pinhole in the finger, replaced runs fine
Irontooth
E-unit fingers end in a C-shaped curve where they touch the drum. Eventually, this will wear until the outer half of the C will fall off, but it might become unreliable before that happens.
Railroads use "two-wear" wheels that can be reshaped when they are worn, to get another lifetime of use from them. With e-unit fingers, you can get another half-century of life by flattening the tip of the finger slightly, so that the original 90-degree angle between the finger and the start of the C becomes about 45 degrees. Then the middle of the remaining half of the C takes over the job of contacting the drum.
A finger that doesn't touch the drum or touches it too lightly, after the operation above or at any time, can be tightened by bending it right where it leaves the wiring board. Make an L-shaped hook from a paper clip that you can pull on to hold the finger tightly against the edge of the board (no bending yet). Then carefully bend the finger back toward the drum by pressing it with a small screwdriver at a point just barely past the paper-clip hook.
Bob Nelson
Thanks for the ideas guys! I haven't had a chance to work on it again yet but now I have a lot more ammunition than the "guessing" I was doing before! I can tell you that the E-Unit fingers still have their curves and appear to be making contact. However since I have a set of dental picks I can easily perform the adjustment Lionelsoni suggested. By the way, the wheels do turn but only in brief spurts.
Well, I finally had time to work on it again. When I saw this I hoped I was gonna get lucky:
But before I could find out, I needed to replace this tender truck.
All I had available was a pair of link coupler trucks from a broken 640 hopper. But that's OK because for this loco (Pennsylvania only, no American Flyer on the tender) link couplers on steel trucks with journals is correct.
I put the tender together and put the chassis back in the loco shell, but no dice. She still won't move. But at least I know my truck replacement is good as the headlight was on and the E-unit was cycling. Glad I didn't put the rods back on yet!
Yikes, those wires look nasty!
And what happened to that tender truck? Looks like someone turned a blowtorch on it!
Penny Trains Well, I finally had time to work on it again. When I saw this I hoped I was gonna get lucky: But before I could find out, I needed to replace this tender truck. All I had available was a pair of link coupler trucks from a broken 640 hopper. But that's OK because for this loco (Pennsylvania only, no American Flyer on the tender) link couplers on steel trucks with journals is correct. I put the tender together and put the chassis back in the loco shell, but no dice. She still won't move. But at least I know my truck replacement is good as the headlight was on and the E-unit was cycling. Glad I didn't put the rods back on yet!
I had to laugh the other day: I looked closely at one of the reverser I had replaced, and some previous owner had repaired the finger tips with a drop of solder!!
Hope this helps.
I am looking at the American Flyer steam locomotive wiring diagram.There are several different configurationS, with yours being the early model with reverse unit in the boiler. With this configuration, power goes directly up to the headlight, so, because your headlight comes on,the problem can be either the reverse unit, or the motor. Easiest way is to " Half split" the problem, to determine which it is.
Be sure to check the brushes first to make sure they are clean and not stuck in their tubes.
Another round of experiments today.
First I pulled the shell back off and filmed the E-unit operation:
Then I pulled the motor apart and got a look at the commutator and brushes:
Dirty, but no major issues. After a little wiping with a swab:
Reassemble and test the motor:
Put the shell back on, try it on the layout:
Still not working more than intermittently.
Disconnect the reverse unit wires from the motor and wire the motor directly as stated in above posts. Power up the motor to verify that it is running and there is no binding anywhere. Reverse the wiring to the brushes and the motor should run in the reverse direction.
Once you have established that the motor and mechanism are good, then attention can be turned to the reverse unit.
Here is a thorough tutorial on servicing American Flyer reverse units.
Hi Becky,
sometimes fixing these old trains you may have many small victories before achieving success. Your engine is actually running now, and that is a small victory. It got better after cleaning the brushes and commutator. I am going to go out on a limb and say you have a problem with the reverse unit fingers. They are probably shot. Two ways to approach this : order the fingers and follow the instructions in Train Larry's link. The other way : last year when I rebuilt 2Flyer steamers, I ordered rebuilt reverse units from Rishalem. Mine were the tender mounted units, yours is boiler mounted, check for availability.
I saved my old reverse units, I'll rebuild them with new fingers when the need arises.
Good luck !
also, I know manufacturers changed things over the years. Your brush plate is different than any of my Flyer engines, which have the brushes in tubes with very long coil springs inside. Wires connect on the ends of the tubes with a slide on clip. Your brush plate has brushes more similar to Lionel. Check that the springs on the brush plate are providing sufficient pressure. I still think it's the reverse unit fingers, though, because it was running until cycling the reverse unit.
Postwar PaulCheck that the springs on the brush plate are providing sufficient pressure.
Oh they shot right out of the holes after I released the screws.
I think I'm going to do a simple hotwire job since I'm only running in circles. I hate to bypass the reverse, but I'm not using it anyways.
Keep in mind I don't own a soldering iron (and wouldn't know how to use one anyways) so my repairs have to involve mechanical means.
Basic soldering skills are needed to do wiring repairs in our hobby. Invest in a 60 watt or so soldering iron and some 60/40 multicore solder. There are online tutorials to help you get started.
Dittos to what TrainLarry said. Soldering's not that hard once you know how it's done and get used to it, and it's one handy skill to have in this hobby!
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