I got my RS-3 back together, and have noticed that the two brand new Bachmann Aristo replacement motor blocks that I bought run at considerably different speeds. This makes for lurchy operation at low speed. Has anyone else had this issue? I’m not really sure what to do. Get a third one and compare?
Hi Eric,
I bought a new FA1 with the new style motor blocks awhile back that had a similar issue. The engine hardly moved at first. Thankfully, it came loose after a bit of running. Perhaps the motor blocks just need to break In?
Another thing to look into is the main circuit boards inside the engine. Occasionally the copper traces can be damaged during derail-short circuits causing greater resistance. Both of my RS3s required jumper wires later on in life. Just swap the trucks to test this theory. (See if one end runs slower with either truck)
Thanks, Jeff. I’ll give it a good run on the rollers tomorrow.
These blocks are wired in parallel directly to the AirWire G3. All of the original wiring and boards went in the bin. I tested them both with my bench supply, though, and the issue persisted.
That does not speak well for Kader quality control.
Greg
Greg, wasn’t that the issue with Aristo? Kader built the stuff, but QC was, ah, lacking.
Purrs like a kitten at notch 8, though! Video:
Eric can you tell which one is dragging my budd had a similar issue and it was the gear box at the time aristo was still in business and i called Nevin said it was the gear box and put a spacer in between the two halves.
Richard
Interesting. The spacer was inside of the gearbox?
Since I bought these brand new, I have emailed the vendor for input.
Sorry did not make it clearer the gear box has two halves when screwed together it binds the gears so a spacer between the two halves stops the pressure on the gears. I did this and it seamed to work but my final fix was to pull the motor and drive shaft and gear. budd runs fine with only one motor block.
Richard
Wanted to close the loop on this. I have run the engine for a couple of hours on both rollers and track, and the motors have evened out considerably. I suspect it was just a matter of getting the brushes settled in.
Without getting too philosophical, I would say that inconsistent quality of an assembled, new, motor block is Kader’s fault who built it. To be clear, there are things that Aristo “mandated”, or really did not want to pay for in the QC process that also caused problems. But clearly motor blocks that run at wildly different speeds when new should not be.
Examples of things I would blame Aristo for is not testing the socket wiring, only testing the loco with the jumper plug in place, thus not revealing sometimes catastrophic electrical failures. Appling red loctite to keep drivers from slipping instead of re-designing the axle/wheel tapers to match.
Greg
David Maynard said:
Greg, wasn’t that the issue with Aristo? Kader built the stuff, but QC was, ah, lacking.