Acela doors stuck open/closed

The doors need the grease to operate. However the issues is why you can buy them so cheap.

Scott Smith

Well the grease is 10yrs old and some of it sort of hard. The manual says use oil, sparingly. In any event, if the worm doesn't turn it doesn't much matter...I could have tar in there...sigh. 

As far as I know there's no way to manually close or open the doors but I don't think that's the cause or the cure of your problem.

 

Where in your consist are the cars that show door problems? Are they directly connected between each other and is either one connected to the lead engine? I think you need to check the connections between both the engines and the cars as the loss of the IR signal between them is the primary cause of problems with these sets. You might have to re-connect the train car-by-car to resolve this; start by putting a car that has problems directly between the lead and tail engines and see if it resets once you start up with only it and the engines in place. I know it's a pain but this thing is sensitive to any defect/variation in track and the coupler design was odd to begin with. 

 

(Marty Fitzhenry has posted elsewhere on this Forum that the IR connections can be changed to wired, which I have never done but I can see why that would produce more stable performance. In fact my set only works in one particular configuration.)

 

You've no doubt figured out that to lubricate the worm gear that is the main part of the door mechanism you have to turn the cars upside down with the doors in the open position. Bearing in mind how long ago these cars were made the grease originally applied to the gear will have hardened to a paste if yours was sitting in the box unused for years. Careful removal of any of the white grease that's on the gear and oiling with some medium viscosity oil might free the gear up if it is binding.

I did clean up the worm gear gunk and used Lagelle 108 on the gear. I'll start again car by car and see if that works. Thanks.

I think you are correct. It's the IR links. What puzzles me is why?  I can't determine what changes. It seems it works when it works and does not when it does not and nothing I do seems to matter.

I haven't got the technical expertise to answer your question; I can only comment based on my own practical experience and what I have read of other people's experience. In fact, neither is completely negative and in particular a number of people with large layouts on which this set can be permanently coupled together report flawless operation. As I have already said, I have a set-up that works consistently but it is only four passenger cars long.

 

I suspect that the signal between the IR sensors gets corrupted (for want of a better word) if the transmitter and receiver are out of alignment. That's also why a wired connection would work more reliably.

 

I have decided that despite all their features and beautiful detail these sets were not perfectly manufactured and that there are issues about the coupler mechanisms staying in alignment because they were also designed to keep the cars and engines closely aligned.

 

Turn over one of the cars and look at the "V" slot in which the coupler mechanism travels to see what I mean. If you notice that there's unevenness in the molding of the slot or that the coupler arm has in fact worn a notch in it (from going around an oval layout where all the turns are to one side) you have problems similar to the ones I have encountered. Either one of these would result in the peculiar hook and eye coupling mechanism coming out of alignment. The risk is much lower on a dead level layout with no 'S' curves when to start with you have lined up the couplers dead straight.

 

Verdict: This model was a great idea but too advanced for the toy train manufacturing process of its time or maybe ever.

I have just purchased a set with the three add on cars. A fixer upper at a give away price...

Only one of the pantagraphs work out of the 4, so I opened her up and the board that controls them has a flashing light that is on...I get a small voltage out put with a digital multi meter, but still no go on the graphs.

 

As for the cars, I never understood why they go "dumb". Some times an Aux1 0 or soft reset with wake the doors up again, other times I have to put each car on the back of the engine to wake them up. Which is no easy task.

 

I was able to get 5 cars and the dummy all in sync. for a while then one will go dumb again and you have to start over.

 

The key is once you get these on the track - NEVER- take them off of the track...

 

Does anyone have the link to Marty's connector fix? Would love to change this set over to connectors...

 

Also, I cannot get the cars to center off, any hints on this failure mode?

 

Well its a great set for the techno "savvy" people with a lot of patience. I am taking it slow and fixing it one car at a time...

 

Every time I see one of these sets I want one.  Then I read threads like this and realize that it's good that I don't have one!

 

So glad I passed on my chance to get one. Too many problems to have fun with them.

You don't see this as fun? Well then you are really missing out. 😜

 

Before I got rid of my set (happiest and sadist day in my model railroading), I actually used electrical tape on the top and sides of the couplings to keep the IR aligned.  Also once it is working leave it on the track.

This morning the stars aligned, or rather the links aligned on one car and it works great. I've concluded the magic is in the linkage, nothing wrong with the cars mechanicals. Did the electrical tape work?  I do intend to keep it on the track once i get everything working together. It's frustrating but when it's working, oh my, oh my, what a great set.  Happy 4th.

I just wish Lionel would remake it in a basic low cost ($300-$500) semi-scale Lionchief set. 

Based on the pricing for even more traditional LionChief starter sets these days, I'm thinking you need to at least add 50% to that. (maybe even double).

 

It's not like anything close to Acela car body molds have been done like that (semi-scale) before.

 

The Amtrak HHP-8 set of several years ago was an attempt at a slightly "Acela-like" offering in a starter set.  Not the same as an Acela of course, but I suspect its the closest that will likely be available for a while.

 

-Dave

Put the set on straight track and hit AUX-1 then 0.  The IR at the couplings is always the issue.  I have hard wired a few sets and they work great.  If you remove the IR and replace with hard wired plugs you will usually get lucky.  Not a fun job to do.  The IR has two wires.  One is ground and the other serial.  At some point Lionel will hopefully get us the Legacy version with the RCMC system.  Yes I know they threw it out one time and dropped it.  The reason for doing this belongs to Lionel.  I strongly desire the updated version.

 

I have seen afew of the Acela sets that needed the R2LC board pulled and reseated.  Pin 24 on the R2LC  (serial) needs to be seated well so you will get the serial data to work the cars.

Thanks. Seems to me if one car works, the R2LC is not the problem...I hope.  I now noticed one pantograph on the non-powered does not respond anymore.  Ahem.

by the way, is there an easy way to determine which wire in the IR link is ground? If I continue to have issues I may opt to hardwire the set. 

Take your continuity meter and put one probe on chassis ground and find the wire out of the 2.  If I remember, one of the 2 wires has a small stripe.  It has been a few years and I do not remember what one it is.

Yes, you are correct, one wire does have a small white strip. 

Ed,

Lionel put a service tips document online. it details the how to's to keep this baby workin".

 

The cars also have one. It may be the same.

 

Nice train. Be patient. It's been a finicky one from day one.

Patience is the word. I now have one car in the consist and it is working fine.  New problem with the pantographs.  In any mode, only three of them move. Two on the powered unit and one on the non-powered unit. Another topic methinks.

 

Sadist day?  Wouldn't that be Masochistic? 

 

 

Oh i love mine. It's sitting on a shelf above my TV. 

Dump the IR, hard wire it  and it will run great.

Marty,

Thank you for the suggestions. Do you have a connector in mind?

Also Hancock, thanks for you comments as well.

 

I have read many a documentation and the list of items that are wrong with my set are just beginning.

 

I did get the traction tires replaced and hope to do never to fight that battle again.

 

So now I pull the 6 cars and the end unit. Next I lightly oiled all the doors and awakened each car behind the engine, so I know if I hard wire the set the door will work.

 

I have 3 pantagraphs out and the cars will not center during the tilt demo...

I think I will have to start taking cars apart to see what is up next....

 

I may use a 9 volt battery to see if I can wake up the pantagraph motor modules...