Possible Menard's LED Caboose Issue - Resolved

Can you explain in detail how you disassembled the trucks? Thanks.

I'll check tonight, but my recollection is that I did not totally disassemble the truck.

I first carefully bent one sideframe out with a flat bladed screwdriver, at the end of the truck which had the bad wiper connection, just enough to be able to pop the axle and wheels out of the sideframes.   

I believe the truck is connected to the caboose frame by one screw, which I unscrewed to get a little more wiggle room with which to be able to access the wiper. I kept the wires still attached to the truck, but I was now able to maneuver the truck a bit better to access the offending wiper arm. I used a pair of locking tweezers and my fingers to grab the wiper arm and bend it back up just enough so that it would clear but still contact the axle when re-installed.

I then screwed the truck back onto the caboose frame. Then put one end of the axle back into one sideframe and bent the opposite sideframe open a little until the axle point slid into that sideframe's slot/hole. 

I then pushed the wiper arm down onto the axle with my fingers just to insure it was making good contact. Sprayed with contact cleaner and oiled the axle ends.

You need to be extra careful when bending the sideframe out - just enough and only as long as it takes to quickly remove/re-install the axle - so as not to break the sideframe. Not necessarily for the faint of heart.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply. Having a hard time finding the wiper. Is it the axle closest to where the ground wire connects or the opposite end?

My recollection is that there are actually two wipers - one on each truck - possibly, one for the rear, blinking red lights on one truck and one for the interior light on the other truck.

The wipers are thin metal strips and appear to be brass.

I'll take some pics this weekend and post on Monday.

All my Menards cabeese flicker and am not concerned. These are very inexpensive items and would not expect Menards to use any extra components to eliminate the problem. (There is a ground wiper on the axels closest to the couplers.) The appeal of the Menards caboose is in the price, blinking red lights and colorful artwork, so I give Menards a pass on the flicker.

I've never taken mine apart to study the electronics board but I would guess that adding one electrolytic capacitor would nicely solve the issue.

@Bruce Brown posted:

I've never taken mine apart to study the electronics board but I would guess that adding one electrolytic capacitor would nicely solve the issue.

Bruce,

I hear ya, but your proposed fix is only a guess at this point.

It's probably not quite that simple.  Perhaps you can recommend a value for this capacitor you suggest adding?

(Seeing as the topic of flickering lights in rolling stock comes up here on the forum about every other month, and there's been very, very much written in other threads about how to deal with it, it never turns out to be so simple.  Most successful solutions have involve the use of an active electronic circuit, e.g. a power supply with filtering, rather than a passive one, e.g. a capacitor, in order to stop the flickering.   If this power supply is already there in Menard's caboose then by all means try increasing the value of the existing filter capacitor.  If not, adding a capacitor alone will probably not do it, unless there isn't one there presently.)

Mike

@Richie C. posted:

My recollection is that there are actually two wipers - one on each truck - possibly, one for the rear, blinking red lights on one truck and one for the interior light on the other truck.

The wipers are thin metal strips and appear to be brass.

I'll take some pics this weekend and post on Monday.

Attached are a few pics (sorry about the quality) of the truck, showing the wiper location on the axle. The chrome axle end is slightly tapered where the wiper rubs, than the rest of the axle.

The wiper is black and appears to actually be part of the black metal truck frame and you can see where a wire attaches to the truck frame. 

Hope this helps.

Thank you. One of the wipers is on top of the axle and the other under the axle.