I recently purchased a Kato sd40-2 on ebay, and after running it today I was disapointed in its performance. I ran sluggish like it was having a electrical pickup problem. My other engines have not done this and my track is clean. Anybody else experienced this?
Todd
Todd,
Your track may be clean,but how about the unit itself??Pick-ups clean, wheels clean, no caked grease in the gears…What you are describing about it’s performance,is the same as an engine sitting around for awhile and not maintained,or for that matter abused…
Cheers,
Frank
The first run of the Kato SD40-2 had a well known pick up problem.
http://www.dufordmodelworks.com/
It is also possible to buy new wired sideframe from Kato. The fix is not too hard.
Does the headlight blink or does it stay on while it is running poorly?
Kato’s electrical pickup scheme on those models was a poor design that relied on the weight of the engine to keep a bronze strip in contact with a small tab that protruded upward from the truck side frame. No wires were used.
When I installed DCC into two of them, I soldered wires to the trucks.
Your model may need lubrication if it has been in storage for a long period of time.
If this is an early run KATO SD40-2, there is a widely known electrical pickup problem with these. Many people have reported issues with them - these engines had a flawed pickup design that was prone to pick up problems.
For a time, KATO offered a retrofit kit for them to correct the problem for a price. There should be some guides out there that also provide how to add wires yourself.