FM Trainmaster Pullmor Binding

retighten your brushplate. pull your motor and ensure the armiture shaft is lubed where it penatrates the motor casing. Oil each axle bushing on the front truck. ensure all gear faces has white grease. These engines sometimes are built/put together at the extreme end of the tolerance parameters. Run it for a half hour and let everybody mesh together. also one drop of oil at the top of the brushplate at the armiture stub.

Thanks Dennis and Stew.  I don't believe the problem is lubrication.  I oiled all the bushings on the motor and wheels and checked the truck for dried grease.  Moreover, the motor isn't frozen. As I said in my original post everything spins very freely when I turn the armature with my finger, but I cannot turn the wheels with my thumb like I can with the rear motor.  When I lift the brush plate high enough I can spin the wheels and the armature turns too, but just replacing the brush plate, even with out the screws, prevents me from turning the wheels with my thumb.

While you have the truck off the loco, check the magnetraction magnets, and make sure the wheels are not dragging on the magnets. Very often the magnetic attraction pulls the wheels against the magnets, causing a problem much like the one you have mentioned. I have found both postwar MPC and modern era locos with this problem. You would probably have to remove the magnets, and reglue them with spacers so that they sit in the middle of the space between the wheels. 

Thanks Luke.  I'll look into that.  John

The easiest way to identify where the problem may be would be to swap the motors.

Try first swapping out the armatures, then the brushplates. If you can get the armature to spin with the brushplate partially removed, but not with it in place, there is a chance something is slightly out of alignment. When turning the armature by hand, do you feel more resistance on the problem truck than the other?

Larry

It's easier to swap the trucks.

I don't know if any of Larry or Rob's suggestions are easy since this is a TMCC with electro-couplers on each truck, so it seems like unsoldering is necessary, even to remove the brush plate.  But I'll take a look and proceed the most logical way.  Thanks guys.

John