Anyone out there had problems with a Bachman Gandy Dancer which is very slow and lacking in power. It has problems negotiating even large radius curves. It would seem that the motor could do with an upgrade but understand that obtaining and installing a suitable replacement may prove difficult. Checked all the usual, pick-ups and power source still the same.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Well......I have over a dozen of these, with no motors or gears, spread out on handcar tracks around the railroad.
Early ones used rubber bands/o-rings on pulleys to gear train, and oil/grease caused that exact scenario.
Later ones could suffer from exploded armatures (and I have saved the motors so I know), usually from overspeed, i.e. Bridgeworks at full 24VDC trying to get to 88 MPH.Looks like a brillo pad...but once that happens, it's dead.
Dirty commutator. Melted brush holder (plastic end piece of motor with brass cylinders pushed in).
Cracked gears is what kills most of them. Split on the axle, and not worth the effort.
Pull the motor and see if you can clean it up a bit.
If you can find a flat can with suitable shafts, you might be able to change out the motor until the gears split.
Newest ones, no idea, as I quit buying.
TOC
In addition to whatCrumudgeon wrote of, I have had one that was driven by a rubber wheel on the motor that spun on the drive shaft. Over the years I had a total of three fail. In each case I found that the costs of repair was within a few cents of the cost of replacement. You id make one comment that has me a bit puzzled. You spoke of the inability to negotiate even a large diameter curve. Were you talking about the ability to move forward or did it try to climb over the rails? If it was climbing over the rails then you could be looking at an axle alignment problem, which in turn could possibly cause the failure to move forward. I have a B-mann street car that did not move as easy as it did when younger that started climbing the rails. I was able to track it down to one axle bushing that was very worn. shimming the axle back in place fixed both problems. Hope this has been of some kelp.
Tom Trigg
Thanks for the replies. Looks like it may have to be a static display in a siding. Spoke to a Bachman rep.in my local hobby store but he just shook his head and could offer no suggestion to a remedy other than buy another one. Yes Tom it struggles with its power on the large radius curves but no evidence that it tries to climb off the track. I'm sure a lot of people must have had similar problems with this item. I'll no in future that these do have issues.
Alan.
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