I’m having a problem with the above loco. Both U-Joints at the trucks are popping off the trucks. There is a very small detent that is supposed to lock the U-joint onto the truck and I’m finding this to pop off of both trucks. I should think this Climax to be the same as the 3 truck now offered with one less truck.
Has anyone else had a similar problem and what did you do to fix?
Thanks!
Mark D.
Try the Bachmann forum, but to tell you the truth I have not heard of this problem.
I will have to join this Forum and ask this question! Thanks for the suggestion!
There have been multiple threads on the troubles with the Bachmann 2-truck Climax, and I expect that the forum’s search under “Bachmann Climax” would provide insight. This locomotive was fraught with gear problems, and very few of them now seem to be operable. I had three, only one worked for more than 6 months, and one of the three was inoperable right out of the box. Core problems stem from split gears - plastic gears forced over metal shafts or axles that eventually split and either spin on the shaft or no longer mesh with the adjoining gears. If the gears in the truck bind in this fashion, that could well be what is causing the u-joint to spring free, as it can’t handle that level of pressure or torque to force against the bad gear. I sent two of my locomotives to a professional repair shop, and in addition to the gear problems in the drive train, there were also split gear problems up in the drive tower, so they still don’t work.
The mechanism of the newer 3-truck Bachmann HO Climax appears to be considerably more robust, and there have been a number of reports on this forum that the 3-trucker is performing well.
Bill
Well, isn’t that just great! I spent my hard earned money on a new loco and installed a DCC Decoder, only to find that the locomotive has had problems from the get go that should have been caught by the manufacturer previous to it being put on the market! I bought this loco a few years ago and doubt it has run twice around the pike!
Did Bachmann ever offer any type of fix for this? I’ve had three Bachmann locos, first was a Micado that was copied from a Reading Consolidation. Loco sounded like a meat grinder from the start; but, at least ran for a few years before it crapped out. Second was a Spectrum K-4 pacific that was an excellent runner and robustly built and I sold on Ebay, third was this one, which is my biggest disapointment from Bachmann!
I will go to the Bachmann website to see if some type of fix can be had.
My club had the 2T Climax that stopped working. After contacting Bachmann, they replaced it with a new 3T Climax for a nominal repair fee.
We had a 3T Shay with issues and they also replaced it with a 3T Climax. Now we have 2 of the 3T Climax locos and all is well …
So, I bet things will work out well for you …
Before you go off the head, you didn’t say the gears were bad, so instead why don’t you do an inspection, and if it is the gears, buy a new set for the 3T climax and fix it or exercise the warranty and get a new 3T climax. That’s what a warranty is for.
Bachmann does offer replacement gears, and a set of metal replacement gears is also offered by Northwest Short Line (NWSL). They are very small parts. As I mentioned, though, I had the replacement gears installed by a professional shop and it still didn’t fix the locomotive, as there were also split gear problems up in the gear tower. I did return one of my 2-truck Climax locomotives to Bachmann and received an HO 3-truck shay in exchange. The shay is still working well.
The size and style of the Bachmann 2-truck Climax really “fit” my railroad, and the slow speed works well on my shelf layout. I’m hoping that perhaps Bachmann will take the tooling of the 2-truck and re-release it with the better-engineered mechanism that appears to be in the newer 3-truck. I’d be willing to try again.
Bill
Just asking, but where did you find one of these? AFAIK, Bachmann only made one run of the HO scale 2 truck Climax, and that was probably 10 years ago.
The two truck Climax made by Bachmann still shows up on e-bay once in a while.
They usually sell at a premium.
There are two of the two truck Bachmann Climax right now, along with a lot of three truck units.
Your right, I didn’t say the gears where bad and had you read my original post, you would know what the problem was.
What’s up with all your passive/agressive, lately? Seems like almost everytime you make a comment to me, you think you need to put in some kind of P/A comment. Sorry I don’t live up to your high expectations of what a Model Railroader should be like!
I guess that’s how long I’ve had this locomotive, then. Didn’t seem like it had been ten years. Doesn’t seem like I’m 62 years old than, either!
I made contact with Bachmann’s Customer Service Department. They said to send the locomotive back to them and they will likely replace with the newer Three Truck Climax that came out not to long ago. Hopefully the drive train is a little more robust in this newer version. Other than the fact that I put a decoder in the two truck and added real coal to the tender, I didn’t have too much invested in the little Two Truck; so, I’m glad I didn’t put any more effort into the model. I will run the heck out of this new model, before adding a bunch of work to it, to make sure it won’t fail.
Bachmann seems to care for their customers very well! I’m glad!
I had a two motor non DCC 44 ton that cracked a gear. Returned it and they sent a new style one motor 44 ton, DCC ready no less. There is aa set of forums at the Bachmann site with a couple Bachmann reps. One is usually at train shows.
Rich
Posting at the Bachmann forum helped me in determining what action to take. Also, going to the “Parts, Service and Information” part of their website and filling out a “Service Request”, put me in touch with someone from the service department very quickly and they called me! I was very impressed!
This is the way to run a company’s service department and any manufacturers out there, should pay attention to what Bachmann is doing! I’m speaking from 35 years in the manufacturing trades and 31 years as a business owner.