Heyo, this is my first post here, and I hope i’m not putting this on the wrong board or anything. I was running my Bachmann Spectrum SAL 4-4-0 on my layout today and everything was going well until I heard something coming from the locomotive that didn’t sound very healthy. Turns out the locomotive’s right-hand valve gear is actually SLANTED, unlike the other side, which is also making a very distressing noise when ran. I grabbed a pair of my pliers and only tried to nudge it back into place so it would be straight and level, like the other side, but I stopped after I noticed I was just about to bend the delicate metal valve gear. I’m a little worried now since I don’t feel like it would be such a good idea to run it in this state and that my warranty is expired. Is there a way to fix this? Any help is very much appriciated.
You might get some help here if you can post a decent photo - a view of both sides (for those of us not familiar with that loco) might garner some suggestions for you to effect a repair yourself, if you don’t want to return the loco to Bachmann
You’ll need to place the pictures in a photo hosting site, such as photobucket, which is free. Once there, simply click on the thumbnail of the photo you wish to use, then, when the enlargement of it appears, click on the line of data beginning with “img…”. The line of data will be automatically “copied” and then you simply “paste” it into your reply here. It will appear in your composition window as data, but when you submit your reply, it will show as the photo.
Could just be the rod slipped out but need better clear close-ups to really tell. Dose kinda look like the alligator (or did I get the word wrong) is out of place slightly.
It looks as if the crosshead guide (the horizontal bars in which the crosshead slides) are sloped down towards the rear. The guides are a press fit into the cylinder assembly, and may simply need to be fully pressed into place.
With the crosshead towards the rear of the guides, insert the tip of a small screwdriver (or an X-Acto blade with the non-sharpened edge facing towards the front of the locomotive) into the space between the upper and lower guides, and then push the whole assembly towards the cylinders. If it won’t stay in place because the hole is too sloppy, a carefully applied drop of ca or five minute epoxy should do the trick.
Re-seating the front of the guides should allow the plastic guide yoke, at the rear of the guides, to straighten out, although it may need a little persuasion with tweezers. The back end of the crosshead guides should slip into either slots or holes in the yoke.