I recently purchased a BLI Heavy Mike refurbished. Running forward it runs ok. In reverse it hits certain sections of curved track and seems to lock up. It will try to restart then lock again. I have fairly broad curves(30" radius) and it happens on the same point in the curves. In other words ok through a portion of the curve and consistently reacts at the same point in several curves around the layout. I tried lubing the main gear but no help.
I suspect that for whatever reason the wheels feel more resistance and the surge in current causes some type of overload and subsequent reaction in the decoder(this unit is DC Sound, not DCC).
Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark
Sounds like a problem on the one faces of one side of a gear or gear set, or a bearing out of alignment. Some people have found that the seating of one or more of the driver wheel bearings is wrong.
Running in reverse changes loads on faces throughout the drivetrain, and it might be one of the above. If it persists, I would return it. BLI have done well for me three times in five years, and I would expect that it will cost you three weeks of wait time. It would be great to get it away by Monday and hope to have it by Christmas.
-Crandell
Mark.
Off hand, it sounds like one of two things to me. Either the rear set of drivers not in gauge and catching or you have a bit of a kink in your curves. Have you checked both with your NMRA Gauge to make sure all wheels are OK and the track is not kinked. (Ask me how I know about the kinked track).
Good luck.
Blue Flamer.
If this happens in an area where you can clearly see what's happening with the drive rods, I'd run the loco SLOWLY through that area and see if the rods are binding on one of the bolt heads that hold them to the wheels; watch especially the area with the eccentric crank.
Although I highly doubt this is your issue, it has cropped up once before with me. Did you check to make sure nothing like a coupler or the water pickup on the tender is catching a tie on your track first? I spent quite a bit of time thinking it was an electro-mechanical problem when in fact, it was a bad coupler catching ties on occassion.
These are all good suggestions. I hadn't thought about the trip pin being too low and snagging part of the guard rail end, say, as happens on some items until you see it.
Raised on the Erie Lackawanna Mainline- Supt. of the Black River Transfer & Terminal R.R.
Capt. GrimekYes, my BLI Cab Forward AC-4's glad hand/coupler hose was catching on ties. I too looked over the drive train with a magnifier and ran things back and forth for a few minutes before I caught the glad hand issue. (Still pretty new to all of this..) a little pliers action and all was good. Hope it's that easy for you! Just be sure to determine lst, whether the hose is really in need of reshaping or the coupler is simply sitting too low altogether in it's draft box.
Interesting. I've had my Blueline Light Mike catch her trip pin, but I;ve never had it reset because of it, I don't think.
-Morgan