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I'm attempting to repair an old Balboa Southern Pacific consolidation. I have checked all the drivers with a NWSL quarterer and everything seems fine but when I've placed them back on the frame and reassembled the entire engine, I'll only get three or four rotations of the drivers before they just get stuck and stop completely.If I reverse the rotation slightly they still begin rotating again but limited to the the three or four rotations. It is not the motor and the pins do not appear to be hitting anything. It will do this even when I'm pushing it by hand. I have another Balboa Consolidation identical to this one that works perfectly so I have one to compare it to so I can tell if I have correctly reassembled the driving mechanism.
I'm really frustrated because it seems like it is out of quarter but I've checked it twice already and all four drivers are quartered correctly.
Were this problem only occuring in one direction, I would suspect the pins were tightening up. But since it is doing it in both directions, unless one side is having the problem in one direction, and the other side is doing it in reverse. Are the screws holding the main and side rods to the drivers the originals (compared to your other locomotive)? If not, could it be that the screws are too short and are binding up after the screws tighten up? Just a thought... Are the side rods a single piece, or are each siderod between each pair of drivers a separate piece? The latter design tends to work better if there is vertical play between the drivers (ala Mantua's setup). Could there be problems with the axle slots? Don't know about Balboa, as most of my experience is with Manuta's bearing inserts, but that is one thing to check. Good luck.
I had the aforementioned problem before. The screw would bind in forward and slop up just enough I reverse ( or vice-versa). However more commonly the problem is gear lash between the worm and ring. Try loosening the motor mount screws and usually there is a little play there. Move it forward and back to see if the bind goes away and retighten it back down where it works best. If that doesn't work try to watch the motor when it binds see if there is excess end play. Hope this helps. Mike.
I'm not sure that the drivers aren't still slightly out of quarter. Best way to test is to attach the rods between the last 2 drivers, one side at a time. Then add in the third driver and finally the fourth. When it starts locking up, the last driver attached is the one that's bad. It could be barely loose on the axle and be moving in and out of quarter as it rolls. Last thing it would be, would be the side rods are worn, and an extra washer is needed behind the screws to give the rods slightly more room on the screws.
