so it looks like the brush holders are riveted to the circuit board, and have the springs and plungers inside… does not look like you can open them.
Can you get some closeup pictures of the holders, outside and inside?
It almost looks like there is enough clearance to pull the board out of the housing by shifting it to one side.
Greg
Greg - Here are some close-ups from when I re-worked mine in 2007… I have uploaded them as 2048x1536 so you can View Image or download and see it full size for detail. You are correct that the casting is riveted to the circuit board. The circuit board is attached to the truck casting with screws. My guess is that you need to remove the circuit board to access the brush and spring.
this is an interesting one. It’s not clear how the unit is closed.
Clearly the metal plunger must be flanged or flared at the “inside” end to prevent it from popping out.
The end of the casting does not look like it comes off.
I see that the diameter of the casting narrows down as it goes outboard.
I wonder if that comes out, or the whole thing is a sealed assembly.
I’d say the next step is remove the circuit board from the housing and get a really close look at the ends… not a very user-friendly / service friendly assembly, that is for sure.
Greg
Dr. John, could you take a close look at the motor in this loco? On the plastic end should be a name (kader?) and a 3 digit number. Please write back and tell me both the name and the number. Could be the same as what I need for the Bachmann Trolley. TIA.
Dick - I don’t currently have this apart. These pictures are from a 2007 re-wire job. I do have some shots of the motor; it has no plastic end and no names or numbers that I can see in the pictures. Has worm gears on both ends.
Dick, I’m pretty sure the motor in the 45-ton loco is the same motor (Mabuchi?) Bachmann uses in many of their locos, but different from the one in the trolley.
With respect to getting to the plungers, you’ve got to remove the pin that’s holding the idler gears in place. One end is knurled and is a press-fit in the die-cast housing. The other end is a touch smaller, so you should be able to tell which is which. Tap on the small end of this pin (so that the knurled end goes outside the block), then the idler gear will come out. There are two PC boards in the truck; one left and one right side. With the gears out of the way, you can remove the screws holding the PC boards in place to remove them and work on the power plunger assemblies.
The $64,000 question is “how do you fix them?” That I’m not sure. I’d probably look at seeing if I could retrofit LGB carbon brush plungers in their place. Those are readily available as spare parts, at least. It’s just a matter of figuring out how best to fit them in place. An absolute worst-case scenario would be to drill out the rivets, remove the stock housing, and replace them with a soldered brass assembly of some variety. I’d look for ways to use the stock housing first, though. I’d think you could drill it out or shim it with brass tubing to hold the LGB brushes. If I could find the ones I pulled from my 45-tonner trucks when I converted to battery power, I’d have a better idea, but I think they’re now holding up a mountain in a landfill somewhere.
Later,
K
Have you tried pushing the plunger in and spraying contact cleaner in there? I’d try that before tearing it apart. More likely bad lube than grit causing the problem. I like contact cleaner because it evaporates clean, use the plastic tube to aim it.
I always have a can of CRC Contact cleaner on hand.
John
How about sending the whole mess to Dave Goodson, with a nice money order towards a box of his favorite CEEGARS, and let him fix the durn thing properly, and be done with it. The loco, which is a rather nice one, is of no use to anyone, if it never works again…I’m sure Dave will just love to get his fingers dirty, fixing it…Smile Dave…I’ll gladly chip in a US buck or two just to see your face, and hear you comments, when you read this…!!!
Fred Mills
Jay Root said:
Thank you Joe
The springs are in the little castings to the left and right of the white gears. They are attached to the PC board.
Jay
Jay
These springs are used to keep the contacts firmly against the back of the wheels.
Over time the current that goes through the springs heats them up and the springs loose their pressure. When this happens I tend to replace all at the same time.
You can order new springs from Bachmann once you take it apart and figure out the size.
I have not yet replace mine in this locomotive so I am uncertain on which spring is used. Most other Bachmann locomotives use the same spring. In my locomotives I replace the pickup springs with a heavier stainless steel spring from either Lees Spring or Century Spring.
Once you have the pickup apart and the spring removed I would be glad to help you identify the replacement you need.
Hope this helps
Stan
(http://lsc.cvsry.com/Post5/45TonTruck1.jpg)
It looks like if you unscrew the PC board ,the spring housings might just back out.
Keep us up to date , this is interesting to say the least!
It looks to me that the gears have to come out before the PCB will come out.
I agree Joe
Hi guys,
I’m brand new to your forum and I’d thought I’d say hello by adding to this thread. I have a lot of experience with this loco. It is one of my favourites but I did come close to throwing it in the pond a few times too!. I have taken these trucks apart so many times I can’t remember and I finally did the “permanent” fix to them summer before last. The loco has been working great since.
Here is what I noticed…those pick up springs are a nightmare! - so are the ones that pass through the truck into the cab. If the loco gets stuck or has an overload for even a split second, they get cherry red and lose their “springyness” - they make no contact after that.(can’t tell you how many times I disassembled the trucks to re-stretch those springs - only to have it happen again.).
To get the little cast "spring holders out - you have to “punch out” the axles and gears - be carefull and take pictures.
Next - remove the circuit boards - the spring holders are screwed on from the bottom side. (makes sense huh?)
Here is what I did - I used a small dremell die grinder and opened up those small cast spring holders to accept the LGB spring loaded carbon brushes. It took some time and a little finesse but it is completely doable. - they will fit with enough grinding. In the end, they will look like very small “u” holders used to clamp copper pipe onto a wall - if that makes sense. You may have to use some shims to hold in the new brushes. I used small, thin pieces of gasket cardboard.
I then just soldered a wire between each pair of brushes (each side) and then sent another wire from each side, up out of the truck to the cab. I Bypassed the small circuit boards completely. Had to open up some holes in the cab to do this.
The Loco has performed perfectly since!
Hope this helps - I would include pics but I don’t want to take mine apart again.
I didn’t have a problem doing this because mine was old and out of warranty anyway. Not sure of your situation.
Cheers
Mike
Fonthil,l ON
EDIT:If I have time tonight, I will pop the bottom of one of my trucks and take some pics - I’m new to the forum so I’m not sure how to add photos yet but I’ll try after work
Joe Zullo said:
It looks to me that the gears have to come out before the PCB will come out.
See my post above. I outlined what I did to mine to remove the pick-ups.
Later,
K
Mike: great info, I was guessing that the “brush” holders were not easy to “open”.
Do they come apart non-destructively once “freed” from the circuit boards?
I’m real curious about that, although my opinion is to put a better “brush” in place that has easily available parts.
Regards, Greg
p.s. Mike, welcome to the forum, and what a nice introduction by a great and helpful contribution. Keep 'em coming! Maybe start a “hello” thread in the general forum telling us a little about yourself, what you model etc.?
As promised guys,
Home now - opened up my 45 tonner and took some pics. Like I said earlier, I ground open the spring holders and used them as clamps/holders for LGB style spring loaded brushes - simplified all the wiring too. This is one of my go-to locos now - tough as nails and great to throw out for the kids to chase around! If there is anything I can clarify - let me know
Greg - the holders do come off easy - just a couple of small screws from the underside of the circuit boards - made of pot metal I think. I was able to grind them open fairly easily. I figured that if I broke them doing this, I could always fab something out of brass to hold the new brushes. - thanks for the welcome too, I will chime up on the main board soon.
Cheers
Mike
EDIT - having some difficulty with photos - please standby:)
EDIT - pics seem to be OK - I click on them and they seem to enlarge ok
Sorry-ignore - still playing with photos
Pics are fine, open one in the album, right click and copy the image location, that gets pasted into the mountain/moon icon box
John
PS; I usually use 2 tabs one for pics and the other with the reply editor open…
Welcome Mike! Thanks for the pics and explanation of your solution. I hard-wired both the track power pick-up and the motors on both of mine eliminating all of the mechanical contact points except for the brushes. I rarely use it on track power - I’ve also added track/battery switches with both DC and Sound train lines I use mine with a battery/sound trail car either singly or MUed.
Kevin Strong said:
Joe Zullo said:
It looks to me that the gears have to come out before the PCB will come out.
See my post above. I outlined what I did to mine to remove the pick-ups.
Later,
K
Kevin,
Yes you certainly did. Sorry. 