DC American Flyer Loco Question

One assumes you have cleaned the wheels and the track?  To me it looks like something is binding and I would hazard a guess it might be the crosshead assembly at fault.

Try disconnecting the connecting rods from the main driving wheels and see what happens.

One assumes you have cleaned the wheels and the track?

I would definitely go over the track and wheels to make sure that is all clean before starting to disassemble the locomotive. Watch the train from a low angle, can you see any sparks from the wheels to the track? Clean the wheels and track with a low odor mineral spirits and be sure to clean up any pitting you see on the tender wheels. I don't believe the cap is going to improve the running of the trains on the dc current.

Ray

Have the "tires" on the drivers loosened up and started shorting to the chassis?

Watching the video closely the headlight never flickers, so the cause is not intermittent pickup or shorting. It looks like something is binding.

Is the can motor secure? My guess is the worm gear is shifting and binding.

Gunny

at the end of the video , it shows a spark at the front tender truck! I would start there

...and a fairly substantial spark at that.

Mark in Oregon

When I use SnS can motors I try to use the existing bearing located in the engine chassis as an additional support. What I have encountered a few times is the can motor worm is fractionally too large and can’t rotate freely.

One option is to remove the bearing in the engine chassis completely. The other involves removing any high points on the motor shaft but you have to be careful not to get any debris in the motor bearing otherwise it will shorten its life.

5:30 am and i have looked at the video a dozen times . it appears to be a later model AF Atlantic, there isn't a more simple Worm gear driven engine in any scale. Either the worm gears have been misaligned, (bent shaft or axel ) or the connection from the can motor to the shaft, this is mechanical  does not appear to be electrical,(although there is a short with the front tender truck probably a bad insulator) The video from the to doesn't show much. You need to post from the side preferably with the body off , to really see what's going on

@Dave Koehler posted:

5:30 am and i have looked at the video a dozen times . it appears to be a later model AF Atlantic, there isn't a more simple Worm gear driven engine in any scale. Either the worm gears have been misaligned, (bent shaft or axel ) or the connection from the can motor to the shaft, this is mechanical  does not appear to be electrical,(although there is a short with the front tender truck probably a bad insulator) The video from the to doesn't show much. You need to post from the side preferably with the body off , to really see what's going on

The above post jogged my memory,

I have had a can motor that had a slightly bent shaft, I could not see it  until I put a dial indicator on the worm shaft which indicated .005 inch run-out, just my experience. This did cause irregular running, I removed the support bearing from the chassis, it helped some, I then tried shimming the motor to open up the mesh of the worm, but the only cure was to replace the motor.

Ray

Okay, whoever had "side rods" wins their choice of cigar or milky cocoanut...

As you can see, it runs silky smooth on just the rear axle. 

The question at this point:  Will the loco pull, say, 5 cars with just one driven axle?  If so, I can remove the side rods entirely and let the front drivers coast; the client is more interested in it running smoothly than 'prototypical' appearance.  If not, it's time to requarter the drivers... 

Mitch

You might find one of the front drivers is not secured tightly to the axle spline. See if by holding tight one front wheels and then moving the other wheel front and backwards. They should not move, if one does then it may be just a case of getting it positioned for the correct quartering and seeing if some CA might work by removing the wheel and cleaning the spline and bore of the wheel and refitting.

I agree with Ukaflyer .     But remove the 2 main rods  make sure the hole on the rear driver is at 12:00  on the right side of the engine move the front right wheel to the same position, now look at the left side, is it off a little bit, follow Ukaflyrs instructions.  If they line up exactly  check you main rods, piston rods, and the sliders that go into the pistons (they are not always the same length)  Every thing  should be the same not bent , worn and be the same length.   Its not important that the wheels are quartered  but that the right side , lines up and the left side lines up

did you get it fixed

@Dave Koehler posted:

did you get it fixed

Right now, it's running smoothly on two wheels, but not much pulling power.  I'll take it back from the owner and get the wheels quartered so it pulls with all four drivers later this month.

Mitch