American Flyer 300AC locomotive. Reverse unit wheel (pawl?) rotates when power from transformer is applied. But wheels don’t move. No sound from motor. Wheels move when commutator is rotated by hand. I’ve cleaned the commutator. Cleaned the reverse unit drum. Sprayed contact cleaner in reverse unit. New fingers on reverse unit.
Any thoughts?
Thank you
My first thought is if there is no motor hum, and obviously the reverse unit is fine, is that the motor may not be getting power. That would be the first place I check. If the wiring is all there (and connected in the right place), I would make sure the brushes are contacting the commutator, they might be gummed up too much for the springs to press them.
Thanks. Am tracing continuity now. So far nothing
Any update?
Nothing has changed. Been tied up on domestic things. I rewired the reverse unit and found a broken wire from continuity testing. Stil same issue. Beginning to think the commutator or field is bad. Will try to understand how to test the field. My understanding is that the 300AC field is different from the other 300 series locomotives. But that’s my next step.
Tks
All the Atlantics through 1954 used the same field, XA9547. All the other steam engines used that same field through 1952. Beginning in 1953, those Hudsons, Northerns and Pacifics that had a large motor (3/4" rather than 1/2") used a different field.
That’s good info. I have a couple of other locos in that 300 series. Appreciate.
Since there is no armature movement at all, there is likely a broken wire in the armature or a broken field wire. Just swap in a good armature from one of your other Atlantics (as long as both are 1949 or later) and see if the motor works.
Thanks for the update.