Model Railroading > Stewart FT engine pickup problems

Have a pair of there FT engiens they are about ten years old and they seem to have pickup problems as have checked and pulled on wires while its running still will suddenly stop and loose all power but with a litte movement of the truck takes off again. It has wires that rub on the outside of the flange near the tread of the wheel they look like some kind of brass color material. Any ideas out there, both A units do the same thing. Boyd in Chiloquin solving one problem at a time.

Sounds like a loose solder joint somewhere near the motor. It would still pickup power if it were at a truck. Check connections from the circuit board to the motor. Are you running DCC?

Mike

Posted from iPhone

It could be a wiper issue as well. Could be that the wiper is worn to the point that the electrical pickup is not the best. How much running time do the units have?

Wipers and/or backs of wheels where wipers rub could be dirty.  Clean with a pipe cleaner and a little bit of solvent, such as lacquer thinner.

Paul B.

Well jerked on the wires at the motor but am loosing power  to the board. The wipers are a piece of wire not a flat piece and already discribed it will try cleaning but has not been run much at all. Was kind of hoping that someone with this brand of unit had gone thru the same problem. Thanks for the ideas as have cleaned once and will do it again. Boyd

You might also have a partially broken wire.

I do thank all that responded but have covered all that I could before posting as have worked problems for years in a diffrent scale. I am not finding anything and why both units? They have the same run time on them, wheels and all are clean yet a little gentle push on either truck and off it goes.
Am thinking its due to the pickup system but am not at this time able to remove the trucks to take them apart. Guess I could go down to my Snap On tools and find an object to take care of the problem. I am also dealing with switch controler problems that are the result of someones poor design and instructions are causeing problems. So think that this week will concentrate on 1 1/2" stuff at Train Mountain where one can use hammers, grinders and welders to fix things. Thanks all for the help if someone could tell me how to remove the trucks off of those uints that would help.
 Boyd