I’m a newbie and need help with this problem on my American Flyer 326. It started having power issues and then only forward worked and now has stopped working all together. I removed the shell on tender and noticed the drum not turning. The lever does go up and down when I move switch and I’m getting sound from the unit. However now only light and smoke working.
I am not sure what you mean by “move switch.” Are you referring the the transformer? Check the simplest thing first, verify the reverse unit lever under the tender in the “unlock” position. Assuming it is unlocked, then spray the reverse unit drum and contact fingers with a plastic safe contact cleaner. This will usually free up a stuck contact drum. Good news is the pawl is moving up and down and not stuck.
The light and smoke work because the 326 is a “5 wire” engine. The 5th wire allows the smoke and light to be directly connected to the two power pickups without going through the reverse unit.
If the above two actions do not fix the reverse unit, then it needs to be rebuilt. There are detailed instructions on how to do that at www.portlines.com, Repair Clinic #23. The Gilbert four position units are are not difficult to repair, there are also online videos that show the process.
Is the drum turning when you move the cut-out switch for the reverse unit? Or is it just moving the pawl up and down, without turning the drum?
-El
I just unstuck a e-unit on a 302 ac first used a can of compressed air at a distance then WD-40 on the drum then contact cleaner on the fingers , then just ran the unit thru it"s cycle with the transformer, slowly began to unstick now works just fine just like it should.
Thanks for explanation and education Tom. I should have said lever instead switch. I did spray it with CRC before I posted my help post. I checked out the rebuild instructions. I had to rule that out because I am the worst solderer.
Thanks again
Babbo
EI
just moving the pawl up and down, without turning the drum?
Babbo
amflyer1
''ll give it a try. Before your post I was leaning to replacing it with an electronic and having Dallee install it.
Thanks
Babbo
I myself have never used one {Dallee electronic reverse unit} but I have read great things about them ,good luck and keep us updated .
The Dallee400 works fine if you choose to go that way. The engine will run much quieter without the hum from the Gilbert reverse unit. It can also always restart in forward if stopped for 7 seconds or more.
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that"s neat, I did not know that. Thanks for the info Tom
Tom,
That was one of my reasons for justifying the expense to go electronic and another was Dalle doing the installation. I won’t have to solder ::_smiling face: I recently switched to Fastrack and a quieter engine sounded good to me. Dalle was very helpful in my discussion over the phone
Thanks again
Babbo
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I almost forgot welcome aboard Babbo.
The S gauge FasTrack with its solid NS rail is pretty nice. It has 27"radius track and turnouts in addition to 20"R. There is also a 45deg crossing in addition to the usual 90deg.
Fastrack is only very slightly louder than Gilbert track in rubber roadbed. Much quieter than Gilbert track w/o rubber roadbed.
Everyone Here is My Update (probably more than you want to know) 
Santa (aka Grandmother) gifted me my 1956 AF326 train set for Christmas. I resurrected it 30 years later for my kids. Last year I resurrected in again for the grandson who loves trains. However I no longer had all the track and needed to get some off the web. It ran OK but not great and now there is YouTube so I thought I would do some Maintenance and Cleaning. Terrible idea. I just made it worse. After numerous attempts to repair and seeming continuously trying myself and the getting assistance to try and get running well and it NOT, eventually decided it was the tracks that were screwed up and got fastrack and that ended my track problem. Train was running better but not great, then one day smoke began to pour out of the engine everywhere. I took it apart to see that a piece of paper was placed by a person to prevent it shorting out had caught fire and burned wires. Returned it to the person and he sent it back barely running and eventually stopped running altogether. Did some searching on-line and thought it might be the reverse unit but didn’t trust myself and that led me to decide to consult with those wiser than me. Not sure if I could fix it or needed to replace it, which led me to you folks. After all your feedback and my numerous failures I decided to send it to Dallee to replace the reverse unit with an electronic reverse unit. I got a call from the gentleman at Dallee after he received it who inspected the train and found numerous problems and offered to fix them, which he did. My AF 326 hasn’t run this good since 1956. Love the electronic reverse unit. thanks to everyone who responded to my post. Sincerely Babbo
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We all like a happy ending! Enjoy running the trains.
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So glade you got it taken care of now the next generation can enjoy it,
Chuck