Lionel 763e from 1997

@Secarider posted:

I just bought a 763e locomotive and tender. The locomotive has been tampered with, and is locked up. It appears to be out of alignment, but I removed the side rods. And I still cannot make the pullmore motor go in either direction with my finger tip. I have to disassemble it, and check the HELICAL gear and the worm gear and all the spacers etc. I tried testing the tender behind my 773 and my Big Boy. I did not get any railsounds at all in Command Control, it just made a sound like it was in idle. I put the tender on a conventional line, and the whistle and bell worked. Is there something wrong the electronics in my tender. I tried putting the railsounds switch in both positions.  Or does it need to be programmed with its original locomotive to have the railsounds work.

Almost impossible to get these out of quarter, ...these have bolt on drivers on a D shape axle end. These are known for having the grease dry up like rocks in the gear box. The lubricant on the Pulmor motor shafts can also gum up. Remove the gear box cover to inspect. Be mindful of wedge shaped bearing bolsters for worm shaft. These are orientated specific.

Pat

What about the tender not working in Command Control.

@Secarider posted:

What about the tender not working in Command Control.

Fix all known issues first, then proceed, .....as far as tender is concerned, check IR connections and proceed. Radio signals transmitted only through IR, radio signal from IR dictates command or conventional environment. No IR signal, tender wakes up in conventional. If the tender  sees the IR signal, then wakes up in command.

Pat

I thought since my 773 and my Big Boy works properly, that one of those locomotives would have made the tender work in Command Control. I had a Polar Express Legacy tender and it worked properly behind both locomotives. Except the big boy has back up light and the 773 does not.

I have one of these. I have swapped tenders around, as a Vanderbilt tender has no business behind a NYC Hudson (strangely enough).

I put a modern Lionel PT tender behind the 5344 (763), as that is what the 5344 had when scrapped in the 50's. I put the Vanderbilt behind a mildly banged-up RS5 SP cab-forward that I got without a tender.

These are different generations of RS, so I factory reset the 5344 to the modern protocol code "74"(?), and factory reset the cab-forward to the earlier protocol code ("18"?). I am not sure about the codes; both are in the respective manuals. Now the old loco talks to the new tender and the new RS5 cab-forward talks to the old tender.

Long-winded as usual, I know, and per your tender testing using other locos, this may not help at all. But there you are - the tender may be OK.

Thank you everyone for your input. I will try to get the Locomotive repaired, and then try to program them together. I thought the tender may have worked if I reprogrammed it with my 773. But I didn't want to do that.

Id get all known mechanical issues addressed first, see if you can get the locomotive running again first, then address the Command issue, ....if multiple attempts were made to operate a frozen locomotive, could have damaged ACDR, radio board, etc. .....if no joy, contact me, I have piles of take outs from these very locomotives. My guess from the far is the tender is just fine, possible damage to IR output from radio board. If so, it’s not the end of the world, I have plenty in stock,....but, again, I wouldn’t get the cart ahead of the horse until known issues are resolved, ...keep us posted,...

Pat

I will do that, I am hoping to be able to work on it this weekend.  Thank you very much for your time.

@Secarider posted:

I will do that, I am hoping to be able to work on it this weekend.  Thank you very much for your time.

No problem, like I said, I have dozens of take offs from these 763’s ....I swap them to large DC can motors and ERR, and blah, blah, blah, ......so getting you hooked up with the OE parts won’t be a problem,...let us know how it goes on here, or you can hit me up.....

Pat

Well guys thank for all your input and advise. I tore down the 763e locomotive Thursday morning. The grease had all dried up and hardened. The rear bearing was stuck to the worm gear shaft. I cleaned all the parts with solvent, regressed everything and put the gear box back together. The plug and receptacle that soldered to the circuit board inside the rear of the chassis came off the board. So there was no communication to the tender from the drawbar. I self cleaned all the plug harness plugs, by reapeadly un plugging and plugging them back together. Put the locomotive back together, lubricated everything. Put the locomotive and tender on the track, and programed it it Command Control. And everything fired up and worked properly. I love the railsounds 2.5 in the Vanderbilt tender. Thanks again for all the advice. Regards Nick

Nick, I wish I would have seen this sooner. I just purchased a 18056 J1e hudson and vandy tender.

Like you found, I unboxed mine that was still sealed in the shipping carton and first thing was get rid of that hardened grease. Couldnt even turn the pulmor or driveshaft with my fingers.

Also, I did post on here, the code I found for these to reset is 740. Not 74. TAS Studios back in the day ammended Lionels codes. Mine was also not responding to TMCC and I tried 74 which didnt work. 740 did work.

Hope that helps.