My Legacy F3 will no longer move (properly).

Looks a little dry to me...

Check to see if both motors are running sounds like one motor is doing all the work. Maybe a broken wire off one motor.

franktrain

Didn't these have the wrong traction tires on them? I would start there.

take the truck off and see when or how fast the motor moves.

 watch out for the little bushing between the truck and the motor.

then see if you can stop the motor with your fingers.

J Daddy posted:

Didn't these have the wrong traction tires on them? I would start there.

That's true. The traction tires either peeled right off or jammed up. There were threads about it with the a MTH replacement.

Most all the F3/F7 production of 2011 were produced with oversized traction tires that tend to rub on the brake shoe. From what I can see in your picture, yours are very close, if not rubbing the brake shoes on the side frames.

Us an MTH replacement to likely fix your issue. Otherwise, these are smooth, reliable runners.

What bothers me though as I reread the thread, is he said they used to work, now they don't? And the traction tires were a known failure out of the box...

If its not the tires, than I would confirm both motors are pulling a load.

Confirm if the trucks are binding... yes these do not have magne-traction, however I found ballast in the gear sets too!

D&H 65 posted:

Most all the F3/F7 production of 2011 were produced with oversized traction tires that tend to rub on the brake shoe. From what I can see in your picture, yours are very close, if not rubbing the brake shoes on the side frames. Us an MTH replacement to likely fix your issue. Otherwise, these are smooth, reliable runners.

Looks really close there, does it run fine with the side frames removed?  As Roving Sign mentioned, add little grease on the gears too.

I had a similar problem that turned out to be loose set screws on the motor flywheel that had the tack ring one it. You you turn the flywheel by hand and it would just spin.

Many thanks for the replies so far. This loco has had very little running time. An hour or two? It was purchased new but only recently. So it has been sitting in its box on the dealer's shelf for several years. Ran perfectly out of the box though . . . until, quite suddenly, it didn't. It was purchased from a US dealer. I am in Canada. Returning it for service is out of the question.

The traction tires look fine. They are not rubbing anything AFAICT. I have tried to remove the side frame. Removed two screws holding it but something hidden seems to prevent my removing the side frame. I have not removed the shell yet.

Possible clue? I have only run it in Legacy mode. When I advance the throttle on the Legacy remote, the hatch marks indicating motion do not appear.

Engines rev sounds increase. Seems the controller senses the loco is not moving?

The Train Brake is engaged on purpose?

Yeah, the photo shows you have the Train Brake pulled all the way down, which is a common and totally inadvertent issue with Legacy engines. Push it back up and see if the engine runs as it should.

As J's Homer!

My face is red but the relief that I don't have another broken engine trumps the public humiliation and embarrassment!

Thanks, guys! 

The funny thing is what prompted you to post a picture of the remote? Without that final clue, we would have had you ripping the innards of that F unit by now...

When I first got my Legacy system, I got bit by the same thing!   I was sure my engine was dead!

I noticed that there was no speed indication on the remote. Actually wondered if, just maybe, it was a problem with the Legacy controller rather than the engine?? Just lucky I cropped the picture wide enough to show the train brake slider. That was the furthest thing from my mind!

So happy this thing is running again as it's a great runner!

I never use the brake, but my grandson does. He goes home and I turn the trains on a couple of days later and usually scratch my head a little before I remember to check the brake. He got me pretty good the first time, however, practice improves the speed at which you figure it out. 

Terry,

     I use the train brakes a lot. Some times they stick and even though the slider is all the way up, the brakes are still on. The indication is the solid blue line across the middle of the remote screen. If the breaks stick slide the slider up and down till it releases (no blue line).

JohnB

Thanks, John. I did not know anything about how that line changes with the brake slider. Never used the brake  . . . not knowingly anyhow.

Terry Danks posted:

Thanks, John. I did not know anything about how that line changes with the brake slider. Never used the brake  . . . not knowingly anyhow.

Glad you could join the rest of us in the Inadvertent brakes application club Terry!

Once you get used to the functionality, it's pretty cool.  It's used to vary the labor sounds and also used to trigger the wheel slip for the Vision Line Big Boy.

A good test is to see if the engine works first in Conv.  Then again, the "parking brake" kept ENTERPRISE atvthe space station in the first Trek reboot.

Dominic Mazoch posted:

A good test is to see if the engine works first in Conv.  Then again, the "parking brake" kept ENTERPRISE atvthe space station in the first Trek reboot.

I just saw that again last week. Hilarious, almost like a spoof!