I just aquired a really nice post war giraffe car. After setting up the actuator ramp and tell tale I discovered the giraffe ducks too slowly and always hits the tell tale strips. I oiled the pivot point of the giraffe but it made no difference. Any suggestions on how to get him to duck down in time to miss the tell tale? Even at very slow speeds the giraffe is too slow.
Roger
Roger, I just checked mine - and although the tell-tale cam actuator is short - the giraffe should be completely down by the time the cam lifts all the way on the actuator, which is only a distance of a little more than an inch.
I take it the car is used? Have you checked to be sure the counterweight is inside the one-piece giraffe assembly inside the car? You’ll need to remove the shell to see this, which I take it you’ve had the shell off at least once.
The other possibility is that a previous owner serviced the car and replaced the tension spring with either the wrong part. Or that the spring is just a little too tight. I’ve never had a problem with this part, which is probably a repro from most dealers. The original part number for the spring is 3376-16.
If the car does have the counterweight inside the giraffe assembly (which could have also been replaced with a repro part), you could try to gently stretch the existing spring a little bit. I’ve had some practice at that technique, so it goes pretty good for me. But stretching the spring too much, will necessitate getting the replacement.
One more trouble-shooting thought: you could try putting a little more weight on the end of the giraffe piece, like maybe a metal washer around where the counter-weight goes, just as an experiment to see if you get better results.
Thi giraffe car came with all accessories and papers and was in the box. It looks like new. I tried stretching the spring a little but so far it hasn’t made any difference. When you pull the car slowly through the track section with the cam plate on it the giraffe ducks down about 1 inch before the tell tale. But being pulled behind other cars at even a slow speed the giraffe head still hits the tell tale strips before he ducks. Its slow to react. I lubed the pivot pin too. I have had it apart to look at it.
Roger
Roger, one more thought: It’s been years since my tell-tale was as delivered. I took the tell-tale pole and mounted it in the layout and made my own activator cam, which I made much longer. BUT make sure the cam actuator plate is centered upon the mounting. the Lionel one is short (see the other very recent thread on the giraffe car), but long enough to trip the “cycle” of operation.
I use 027 track and as I recall, the cam plate did put a little bit of drag upon the passing train but it wasn’t that bad.
I was thinking it needed to be made longer too. Thanks for the help.
Roger
Roger I think you will find out that most hit the tassels if you use the one given by Lionel it was part of the realism I believe. It was designed that way other wise as brianel027 says you need to build a longer actuator