AF 307 4-4-2, I need some help to get it to run

Could you post photos of under the shell?

Here are some pics, thanks

Possibly needs a good cleaning and lube; maybe brushes/commutator, and very likely the reverse unit. (of which I have a few needing work!) I just emailed you a mess of details on reverse unit service, sent to me by a helpful Flyer expert. Hope this helps.

It is almost always one of three things. Worn brushes in the brass tubes/dirty commutator; worn reverse unit fingers in the tender; hardened grease on the worm gear. Of course someone could have locked the reverse unit in neutral by moving the lever under the tender. A spray with some electrical contact cleaner at each of those three locations will frequently get it running.

Tom Barker's Youtube Repair Clinic has some tips that may be of help:

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

EDIT: As an aside, I find a 307 with a "plug-in" connector to be a bit unusual. I don't recall seeing one with tender reverse that wasn't "direct wired". I'm guessing this must be an early version. Is there a date stamp on the underside of the boiler or cab?

Thanks for the help. I have given it a good cleaning but still nothing but a buzz. If I disconnect the plug from the reverse unit should the motor run when power is applied? I tried that and got a puff of smoke from the motor and the buzz.

Malcolm

If the motor buzzes and armature moves but won't spin if you manually assist it, it may be a bad armature with one of the three windings shorted or open. This could have happened if someone tried to run it and kept applying power when it was bound up from lack of lube or whatever. Or if the motor overheated from running too long and too hard. Armatures are easily tested with a VOM meter. Check resistance and continuity between each of the three commutator faces. Also check the field winding for a short.

To test-run the motor without the reverse unit, make sure you have a complete circuit through the motor with the field and armature in series.

Malcolm, I am not sure I understand you last post. First follow Ace's advice on metering between the commutator segments and the between each segment and ground. Also be sure to watch the Barker video Craig provided.

If I follow what you said, you unplugged the 4 pin jack from the tender, put the engine on the track and got a hum and a puff of smoke from the engine. That should not be possible because the only power pickups are the tender wheels.

Brother_Love posted:

Here are some pics, thanks

Brother_Love,

     You have a buzzing going on when you put power to it. Check the tender lever underneath. One side of the travel is for locking in one direction. The other end of the travel is for sequencing the engine F-N-R-N-F etc. This is the Stock reverse unit  action. No the engine will nit run without the tender because the pickup of electricity are in the  Tender only. Try this and see if you can get the reverse unit to sequence and make the engine motor to run.

Thank you all! It is running great now. I just cleaned it again and adjusted the fingers and away it went. One of the tender sideframes broke but I can get it back together. It was staked and I will have to remove the truck to repair it. My grandsons should get a lot of play value out of this set. BTW, date was June 1954.

Thanks again, Malcolm