I need your help with a Legacy Crane Problem

There is a lever that slides down to hold the gear in place right to the front of the gear mesh.  Its in the manual. I just helped set one up yesterday. Look in the manual. Once the gear is meshed the arm swing towards the back and keeps the gear engaged. 

Thank you.  I looked at that in the manual and totally got it wrong.  It came engaged, and I disengaged.  I did not read it carefully and for some reason thought the pictures showed the opposite. I was the case of RTFM CAREFULLY!

Don't worry I thought they were a bit confusing too. If I didn't already have one from years back I would of thought like you. 

I had the same issue when my MOW crane arrived a few weeks back.  It was engaged already.  I'll also mention that getting mine to disengage has been easy and not so easy.  Sometimes the smaller gear below the large gear doesn't easily pop out and disengage.  

Have you thoroughly put it through it's paces?  Everything on mine worked great for about 10 minutes.  After turning 180 degrees in one direction and then 360 degrees in the other then back 180 degrees to where it started and fully raising and lowering the boom I encountered a problem with the large hook.  It would go down but wouldn't go up.  It went in to Lionel for service but I had the same experience when it returned.  Once I put it through all it's paces the large hook went up and down and few times but then stopped going back up.  There is a limit switch in place to stop the motor if you go all the way up and it's acting as if that switch is engaged.  I think there is an intermittent electrical problem.  

It seems like a great item with lots of play value.  My 9 year old son was very excited about it.  At this point I wish I would have spent the money on a new ZW-L.  The crane will have to go back to Lionel.  I regret buying it now.  I don't think it will ever work reliably.

I have the same M/O/W Crane. But, I haven't set it up yet. I was going to hold off until to Christmas. But now reading all of scary treads. I don't thinks this is a good ideal now for Christmas.  So next week I'm going to set it up on a Test Track and Test it out for myself. 

I will let everyone know how, I make out here.

Just a side note.....I learned from Lionel Repair that they recommend you do not retract the hooks to the top of the boom.  When the hooks are retracted, they should be kept 1 inch from the top of the boom.  In addition, I had an issue with my crane turning left and right which was alleviated by taking the cab off (6 screws) and finding one of the gears was loose inside the cab......easy fix since the gear attaches with a set screw.   

-Pete

Looking for forum help in identifying the problem with my crane.  It worked fine when I first received it for about 10 minutes.  Then the large hook would not retract (go up).  It went off to Lionel and when it returned everything again worked for about 10 minutes then the large hook would not retract.  I've been trying to do some more investigation before it takes it's 2nd trip to Concord.  

I had it boxed up and in the car yesterday, so it was subject to vibrations and bumps for an hour or so. I unboxed it and put it back on the track to see if using my Cab2 made any difference (I'd just tested it with the Cab1 up to that point.)  To my surprise the large hook retracted.  But within 10 minutes I was back to the same problem of the large hook not retracting.  It will go down further but it will not go back up.  I thought maybe it was an electrical component getting warm so I left it on the track overnight.  This morning the large hook will still not retract.  So that seems to leave me with something that's not quite making solid contact electrically and bumps or movement of the crane impacts it.  The hook will still lower even when it won't go up, so that seems to rule out the motor.   There isn't anything pressing against the plate that engages the limit switch and the limit switch itself is not depressed. But since the limit switch does stop the motor from continuing to raise the hook something in the wiring there is highly suspect to me.

Even if Concord can get it to act up, it might start working again with just the activity of dismantling it, so trusting that it's really fixed would seem to be something you'll only know after a good week or so of running it heavily.  I've not been able to get it to work consistently for more than 10-15 minutes.  However, the only thing that ever fails to function is raising the large hook.  Any ideas before it's next trip to Concord?

MOPAC01......I am on my second crane......my first one experienced the same issue as you wrote about above....

That one I shipped back to vendor who immediately replaced it with the one i posted about earlier in this thread.  Have you spoken with the vendor yet?  

-Pete

Pete - No I have not.  I figured it was a "Made To Order" type item even without that logo appearing on the catalog pages.  And indeed I received the last one in stock where I purchased mine.   Given I figured there was no additional stock for a straight swap, it seemed the best bet would be to send it for service.  At this point I don't see how they would take it back since it's already been on a trip to Concord and back.  Plus I have the boom car from the beginning of the year.  And that's $200+ by itself.  It doesn't make any sense to own a boom car that makes crane sounds with no matching crane. In hindsight what I should have done is waited to see if I could buy both together and only then commit.  And if either was defective ship both back and skip the whole thing.  

I see your dilemma.   You only recourse is to ship it back to Lionel...when operating properly there is a lot of play value with it. Good luck.

-Pete

Update - since at least one other forum member experienced the same issue I did I thought I'd post an update.

After a discussion with the wonderful folks in Concord, I decided to make the effort to fix the crane myself rather than sending it back a second time - particularly since the issue seemed intermittent.   I was told to tug gently on the wires at the limit switches to make sure they weren't loose.  (They weren't.)  I was then told to check if the limit switch wires were sandwiched under a small plate at the base of the boom.  In my 2nd attached photo taken from above the boom looking down you can see this plate with a screw at each end near the top of the photo and directly above the shaft with the downward boom tension springs.   The wires weren't sandwiched there BUT I did find one of the limit switch wires off to the side next to one of the downward tension springs.  I've drawn a blue arrow at that wire in both of the attached photos.  At the bottom of the booms vertical movement this wire was under some tension.  In this position the large hook wouldn't go up.  When I moved the boom to midway in it's vertical range the tension was off this wire and the large hook did go up.  If I pulled gently on this wire while holding the up button the motor would stop and start on the large hook.  So the problem appears to be the limit switch shorting and the board incorrectly "thinking" the hook was all the way at the top.  I took the cab shell off (6 screws on the base) and then the inside crane/motor assembly off the car base.  One of the 4 screws to remove the crane/motor assembly is under the lever that holds the gear in place for the cabs turning movement (picture in an earlier post to this thread).    You have to remove the screw that holds that lever in place to get at that 4th screw.   IT'S VITAL TO KEEP TENSION ON THE BOOM.  The easiest way for me to do this was to reinstall the zip tie around the coupler that held on the small elastic bands connected to the 2 boom hooks as shipped from Lionel.   Rubber bands would work as well.   I was able to lift the entire motor/boom assembly off the car base far enough to reposition the strained wire with the rest of the limit switch wires.   You then have to be sure the downward tension springs are engaged as you replace the motor/boom assembly back on the car base.  

All in all it was a tedious process.  The need to keep tension on the boom to prevent the boom strings from tangling creates a major hassle.  It's not for the faint of heart.  In order to simplify the number of parts being juggled I completely disconnected the cab shell.  This required removing 2 wire connectors from the control circuit board - 1 for the lights in the cab shell and 1 for the TMCC/Legacy antenna.   In removing the antenna connector I broke one of the wires.  GRJ was kind enough to tell me what micro connector I needed and where to get the correct crimping tool.  The micro-crimping was a challenge but 3 or 4 tries later I had that fixed as well.

Hopefully this solves my issue permanently.  It's possible the wire that was strained when the boom lowered may short again over time.  I never found exactly the point on the wire where the problem was other than taking the strain off seems to avoid the issue for now.    

Hopefully this helps someone else like me, particularly if they don't discover the issue until after the unit is out of warranty.   As I said early on, my problem only manifested itself at certain times and in certain boom positions.

Thanks for the update.