I spent some time examining and fiddling with the loco's inards and I think I've got it resolved. I installed a 0.040" styrene shim underneath the back end of the motor so its worm gear would tilt down some more and engage with the drive gears.
I noticed the manufacturer was a little too generous with the gear grease as there were large lumps everywhere and very little in the gears, so I scraped the blobs off and will make a cleaner application.
Overall, from the clean state of all the components I speculate that its first owner tried it, found it didn't run, and then put it back in the box. It doesn't have the usual telltale signs of an active running life. To me the gear problem didn't look like the loco had been abused, but that its design and manufacture was the root cause.
When I bought this loco the vendor asked me if it was for a child as he'd give me some track too if it was. I'm glad a child wasn't the recipient of this thing. Imagine the disappointment of not having it run straight from the box.
Ok, well, it's on to painting.
Using multiple types of grease can result in grease solidifying. Clean all older grease from gears and worms before regreasing. Additionally, using a grease specifically for model railroad locomotives is advisable.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information! I'll give that a try.
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