PW 2035 Problem

Welcome to the fun world of train repairs!
The loco is probably missing the smoke unit.
First thing to do on any repair is to tear it down and clean all traces of dirt, oil and grease with alcohol or naptha. Take the brushplate off, remove the armature and clean everything of old oil and grease also. Check the brushes for excessive wear, and the springs for proper compression and replace if needed. Reassemble the motor with a drop of oil on each end of the armature shaft bearings, and a dab of grease on the gears. A couple of drops of oil on the axle bearing of each wheel is needed also. Clean the roller pickups the same way, but do not lube them.
If the e-unit is OK, then the loco should run.
A link to Olsens' pages for your loco is here: 2035

Larry

quote:

Today I bought a PW 2035 junker to learn how to do my own repair work. When I first saw it, the e-unit made its buzzing noise but didn't move. When I got it home and opened it up it makes no noise at all. I looked at the e-unit and cleaned it up, the drum looks good and the fingers were touching where they should. The wires appear to be ok and connected except for one, I assume which may be for a light or smoke unit which it does not have. Can anyone point me in a new direction and is there a website that would help me out? I searched the forum for past posts and I didn't see anything, I tried Olsens but I had not luck navigating it for the info I was looking for. Thanks in advance

Hi Bruce, I did repairs on PW locomotives for years and Larry has provided you with some darn good methods to get your locomotive clean and lubed. As far as the e unit goes, you can test it outside the locomotive. Disconnect all the wires from the points wires go to, i.e., motor, etc. Find the wires to e-unit coil and you can power these by touching to transformer posts. Sometimes the coil plunger and coil tube get dirty and/or stick and should be cleaned. I used to, very carefully, take the e-unit contacts, roller and plunger out to clean them. Then put everything back into place. If I ran into any trouble I would replace the whole unit or those parts which were causing problems.

Cleaning and repairing e-unit takes practice....like everything else. The more you do it the better you get. I would suggest purchasing a couple of complete (used) e-units either off the forum or on the bay and just practice taking things apart, cleaning and re-assemble. Never use steel wool when cleaning any part of a locomotive and get the cleaning tools you need first and place them in a small cleaning kit.

TEX
Steve

Have you seen this:

http://www.justtrains.com/Service/maint-main.asp

Thanks Steve and Larry for your replies. I did clean everything as suggested but what is stumping me is that absolutely nothing is happening when I put it on the track and apply power. Again I checked wires and looked at the e-unit again and everything seems to be in place. There is no buzz or anything. I do have the body off completely, have jiggled wires while on the track and zip happens. The e-unit LOOKS ok maybe I need to replace fingers or whatever? Also the wires look original, maybe a short and I need to rewire?
Bruce C

Bruce,

With the chassis on the track and powered up, does the headlight work? There also needs to be a wire from the rollers to the e-unit coil, and the e-unit has to be grounded to the frame. Make sure there is no dirt/corrosion inside the frame where the e-unit screws to the frame. Move the e-unit lever to lock it in place. Take a wire from the center rail to the e-unit contact where the lever locks in place. This is one side of the coil. The other side is grounded. The e-unit should buzz and the train may move.
This should show whether the e-unit is good or not.

Larry

Thanks Larry I will try that later on tonight
Bruce

I'm making some progress, I put the chassis on my track and touched a wire from the center rail to the e-unit and got only a spark. Then on a whim, the unconnected wire that I thought was to a smoke unit or a light, I touched that to the center rail and I got a buzz and movement of the chassis. I've looked at the wiring diagram on the Olsen site and I think the wires are correct but now I'm not sure and not sure I am reading it correctly. Anyone have any other ideas? Thanks again
Bruce C

Thanks Larry, will try that tomorrow and lets hope it works, I'd like to see this $25 orphan running around entertaining me and my grandson.
Bruce

I finally got the loco running and it runs great. Its a strong and smooth runner and pulled a bunch of cars with no problem. It still needs some work such as a light and smoke unit and the e-unit roller needs to go but for $25 I think I did ok. Thanks to everyone that gave me advice, Larry, Tex and CW and also the LHS owner that gave me the deal
Bruce