AF 290 Loco

The motor on the AF 290 is a universal AC/DC motor, and will run on either voltage type.

If the motor spins freely and there is no binding in the mechanism, then the next thing to check is the wiring. Make sure the motor is wired properly. See the drawing for proper wiring. Disconnect the wiring plug from the tender to the loco and jump the yellow and blue wires on the loco side of the socket. Apply power to the red and black wires and the motor should run. If it does not, then there is either a wiring problem, or the armature may be bad. A shorted armature will smoke.

Here is the parts view of the loco for reference.

Larry

Gilbert made some engines with ALNICO permanent magnet DC motors but all 290's were AC. Standard items to check are rotate the armature with your finger or a small screwdriver to make sure nothing is binding. Check the condition of the brushes. Check the fingers and rotating drum in the tender for electrical continuity. This covers 90% of the operating issues. beyond these it could be a bad wire between the engine and tender or a broken winding wire. Much harder to fix but a relatively rare failure.

If you ran the engine on AC and it was a DC you have just burned up the motor. They ran the DC's with a rectifier between the transformer and the track power back in the day.

Dave. LBR

Although the wires on the loco are all black, you need to follow the sequence of the wires to jump, ie. jump the 2 outside wires on the socket and add power to the 2 inside wires.

Larry

Great Larry!  I just did it and it runs great. 50 year old smoke pumping out too! 

So I assume it means my issue is in the tender directional unit? I hear it trying.  Maybe I need to pull the body off and take a peek.

Also, I only had it going forward. I moved wires around but couldn't get it to go backwards.  How do I do that?

Matt

That is normally the job of the sequencer in the tender. To make it run in the other direction first look at the 4 terminals on the back of the cab, consider them 1,2,3 and 4 from left to right. Jumper 1 and 2, apply power to 3 and 4. Cross fingers no smoke appears, observe rotation.

Great to hear the motor runs!

To get the motor to run in reverse, jump the 2 right hand side wires and power up the 2 left hand side wires. That reverses the flow of current in the field winding, therefore reversing the motor direction.

Larry

Larry's and my connections do the same thing since this is a series connected motor. Either works. If interested the quickest reference for AF wiring diagrams is the Portlines website in the repair clinic section.

Yep, got it going. Runs fine both ways. 

Pulled the tender top off.  Looks just like a Lionel E unit, or close.  Looks clean and all solder joints are nice.  Fingers are all there and it cycles nicely.  Must be a wire issue to the loco, even though they too look good.    Gave it a shot of contact cleaner and put it back together.  Same issue.  But at least we know the loco is running good.

A little more digging and she'll be fine.

Thanks again

Follow the wiring diagram I posted. The wire colors in the diagram are for reference, and ease of following the wiring.

Make sure the finger contacts are clean and in contact with the drum, and are not worn through or burnt. Make sure the drum is in good shape and the copper on the drum is clean and bright. You may need to dis-assemble the reverse unit to do a thorough inspection and cleaning.

Larry

I've sometimes found out that the wires going into the plug from the reverse unit are broken inside the insulation.  Check the continuity from the reverse unit to the prongs on the plug. 

The 290 series locomotives are usually good running units.  Good luck!

I had a similar issue with a #302: somewhere there is a video that really shows how to service the tender-mounted reversing unit. Done by a fellow who has written a book on Flyer servicing. Go to youtube and look for it. It helped me greatly...

Mark in Oregon

Thanks for the help everyone.

Matt

Tom Barker's helpful repair clinic here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaT4osktxOg