hi,
i have a bigboy approx. 1984 vintage made by rivossi that i would like to dismantle and service,i have had a good look at the loco and feel that to dismantle i will have to start at the drivers and dismantle by sections,could someone inform me if this is correct or advise on how to carry out a servicing procedure,i have contacted rivorssi/lima seeking a parts diagram or simular and didnt receive any joy from their end,any help will be appreciated
Why do you think you need to do that? What is the problem? Any specific answer would require knowing what the symptoms are. Basically you remove the screws under one of the domes and I believe one in the front to remove the upper shell half. Flip the engine over and you can remove the link between the front and rear set of drivers. The front set has a screw that holds the universal joint together were it is mounted to the engine. Removing it allows the front engine to be removed. You can also dismantle the vertical drives by removing the two screws. Rear truck I really don’t remember but again some symptoms are needed to determine if you really need to go to all that work.
thanks for your reply,here are some reasons,
slack in the driveline,need to check motor brushes,no real pulling power,need to check power supply from wheel pickups to motor,vertical drive needs shimming,i cant see where the boiler splits and i couldnt see any screws in the domes, first place i looked,if you say the screws are there i will have another look.
thanks again
fred
This is one of those situations that if you need to ask how to do it, you should not do it. The Rivarossi articulateds are easy to take apart and put back together.
where would we be today if one did not ask questions on how to carry out a task,and where would model railroad magizine be by not answering questions and offering advise to their many supporters,you might have gathered that wasnt the answer i wanted,anyway i will get out my flat blade screwdriver and start unscrewing ,have a nice day
I think there might be one in the stack or the one that holds the front truck on. The second one is usually in the back dome which pops off easily with finger pressure. There might also be one under the cab (I forget). Then pull the cab handrails outof the cab and the top should come off easily. Describe what you mean by slack in the driveline please. Rivarossi engines use a series of drive shafts that shouldn’t allow this to happen. The motor (when you get the top half off) is held on with two screws. The shaft generally has been ground with two flat sides at the end that slip into a square slot in the drive shaft that connects the motor to the rear gearbox. That shaft has two flats also. So when you remove the motor you can then test it and check the brushes without doing anything further to the engine. If you need to go further I would check the drive shaft for a problem and then remove the two screws that hold the gearbox in place for the rear set of drivers. The only tricky part about reassembling is Riavarossi uses a vertical drive shaft that has a ball with two pins on the end that mates with a piece of tubing that has two slots in the side. This creates a slip joint and a universal joint so the dirvers can move up and down independent of the top gearbox. You just need to be sure you reengage the pins into the slots. It will make sense when you take it apart and look at it. Then I would check the driveshaft to the front truck. The gears in the driver sets are all brass but if you want to check them just turn the engine over and remove the bottom plate for the drivers. Usually they are held on with a screw at one end. By lifting that end you can disengage the other end which just hooks into the plastic. No need to diassemble the engine to do that.
thank you,ndbpr
i appreciate your reply and no i dont want to dismantle the loco completely,i just couldnt see any other way of doing what i wanted to do.i would like to check the brushes and commutator for wear and pitting.the free play is in the vertical drive shaft in the rear driver set,reading your advice this may be normal for these vertical shafts,the reason i said there was slack in the drive line is when operating the loco in reverse ,stopping and then going forward there is a slight delay as the driveline takes up and the loco gives a slight body roll from the torque reaction,this also happens when travelling forward and then reversing,i have printed your last reply for reference and hopefully can keep in contact,thank you again
fred