I’m looking to buy a pair of USA Trains motor blocks for a SD40-2. I’d prefer new, but might take slightly used for the right price.
And the price USA charges for then new new is too much?
From Charles Ro:
Product ‘R22-422’ is not available at this time.
Ah. Ok.
I guess he sold out of them at the ECLSTS.
Dan is correct.
David, Robby said they are sold out and no production runs in the future. I ran up to his shop yesterday. I’m thinking I may pull the revolution and battery out of that engine in the meantime. I have a nice display track that I could put the engine on.
One should ask if Ro can rebuild your present ones, they may have the motor/wheels and gears but not the plastic pieces like the block.
Matt Russell said:
Dan is correct.
David, Robby said they are sold out and no production runs in the future. I ran up to his shop yesterday. I’m thinking I may pull the revolution and battery out of that engine in the meantime. I have a nice display track that I could put the engine on.
Matt
You could pull the motors out also and run it as a dummy… shut up rooster!
Thanks Dan. I hadn’t thought of that.
Sean, I had considered that. Also, when talking to Robby he suggested switching out the motor blocks for Dash 9 blocks. He told me who use to do it. So, I thought about switching the csx sd40-2 motor blocks out to dash 9 blocks, then taking the csx sd40-2 blocks and putting them in the chessie sd40-2. That just seems like a lot of work and a lot of money. Then the csx sd40-2 would only pace well with a dash 9. I think for now I’m going to leave it be. If I run across some motor blocks, then fine. If not, it’s gotten too cold to run a train outside anyway. lol
What’s wrong with the original blocks that they don’t work? Broken axle gears?
Craig, they both spin at a fraction of the speed they are supposed to. Compared to my other sd40-2, this one just creeps. I took it up for Robby to inspect and he said to try putting some lithium grease on the gears. But, he was fairly certain that both motors are shot.
Could the motor blocks have been inadvertently wired in series when the revolution was put in? That would make them run at half speed or less.
Nah, I’ve been running that engine for probably a year now. It worked the previous week just fine, then the next time I got it out it just crawled. Doesn’t make any weird noises either. It’s like it’s down on power.
Did you try powering the trucks directly? Maybe the revolution is restricting power for some reason.
I didn’t think I was supposed to do that. I have a battery installed in the engine.
Matt,
I’d suggest the problem is NOT likely the motor blocks… Did you check the battery voltage, static and under load? What type of battery is in play?
Powering the drives directly without benefit of the onboard system would be definitive.
Its unlikely IMO both motors and or drives have identical and or even simultaneous failure modes of like nature.
Michael
Well when testing the blocks with a power source, you HAVE to disconnect them from the on board control system. You do not want to feed power back into the on board control system.
Michael, I’ve not tested the battery. It’s a cordless renovations battery. I think it’s 18v or so. I can’t remember. I had Robby install it about a year ago with the revolution reciever. When I took it up to him the other day I asked if he thought maybe the battery was failing. He didn’t think so. He said that usually they either work or not at all. I appreciate the info. I’ll try to do some testing on it this weekend.
Thanks David. I thought I’d read that somewhere. I may take it apart this weekend and mess with it. I’ve never even had it apart.(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)
Carefull
Matt,
Most assuredly you’d unhook/disconnect the onboard system at the trucks and power each truck individually.
Li-Ion batteries are peculiar beasts, they can appear to be OKAY, but fall on there face while under load. Its more likely than not that you have a battery that is comprised of multiple sets of cells/batteries configured in series-parallel to obtain the desired voltage and capacity. Your battery will have at least four 3.6V cells wired in series to garner 14.4V, then another two or three sets of four cells wired same as the first in series are wired together in parallel to form your battery. The batteries are stacked-up in parallel to increase capacity, i.e., most 18650mAh cells are in the 2600mAh range, so two sets of four cells would be called out as 14.4V 4S2P battery; four cells wired in series is the 4S and two cell sets wired in parallel is the 2P. Each set of four cells has a capacity of 2600mAh, two sets of four provides 5200mAh battery capacity. What often happens with the batteries wired in series and or series-parallel is one or more cells fail, causing the entire battery to suffer.
How many hours are on the drives, USAT drives are quite robust IMO less the well documented issue with the axle gears cracking.
Michael
I have to agree with Michael’s posts, highly unlikely both motors quit at the same time.
Check for cracked axles (try to rotate wheel by hand in opposite direction)
Greg