How do I go about getting my AZL & MTL engines to run properly. They have not been run in a couple of years and now only a couple of them run at all. I know that there was a post here about cleaning equipment, but i cannot locate it. Thanks. Jack Chase jack.r.chase@gmail.com
It is always good to start from the bottom and work you way up. 1. Clean the track: when the track no longer leaves black stripes on your cleaning cloth, it is clean enough. 2. Clean the wheels of the loco. Take a piece of straight track, cut a strip of paper towel long enough to fit the loco on, put some cleaning fluid on the paper towel and place over the track. Hold the loco on the paper towel covering the track rails so that at least one pair of pickup wheels are touching the bare track. Place a 9v battery on the other end of the track so that each pole is touching one rail of the track. The wheels of the loc should start spinning. keep moving the loc/paper towel so that all wheels have a spin on the paper towel. when all the wheels stop producing dark spots on the paper towel you are done. 3. Clean the trucks: look at the axles of the trucks and see if you spot any fibers wrapped around the axles/gears or dirt deposits. If yes, disassemble the trucks and remove the fibers and clean the dirt inside the trucks. Every loc should be running by now. If not, remove the locomotive shell, take some HPI Racing Nitro 9062 cleaning spray and, with the straw in the spray cap, shoot down between the halves of the frame over the gear towers, repeat until the residue drippings are no longer black, but clear. See if it runs now. if it does , using a .010 inside diameter needle dispenser, drip ONE drop of conducta-lube (trade name - made by several manufacturers) onto each gear in the truck and on the worm gears on the motor drive shafts. DO NOT LET THE OIL SEEP INTO THE CAN MOTOR. Hence the recommendation for the micro needle dispenser and a single drop per gear. The dispenser needles on most oil products drop too big an oil drop for a Z locomotive. Get a bunch of needle dispenser bottles from Chinese vendors on the auction site for pennies. or pay $7+ for one bottle from Huron Mfr. Cheaper track cleaning fluid than the HPI Nitro for the track and wheel cleaning can be had from any german manufacturer (several) who sell "smoke/track cleaning fluid" Good stuff, been using since i ran G scale where the brass track is always oxidizing and the gunk from the plastic wheels makes an impenetrable crud on the track. good guides http://www.zscale.org/articles/revival.html Greg Elmassian Website http://www.elmassian.com/ Look for any articles by the late Glen Chenier on the MTL F7 on this board
This procedure works well for any locomotive without traction tires. MTL and Brass AZL (and Marklin, as far as I know, as I've never owned any). Problem: AZL's current products (ie plastic shell equipped) are delivered with one pair of traction tires. One shouldn't want to follow the above procedure as locomotive's traction tires would grab the towel on one side, and rail on the other, thus virtually stalling its motor (and frying it if one maintains his pressure). What I'm doing on my traction tire equipped AZLs: -I put the locomotive in a craddle (its box for example) wheels up. -I apply a 4.5 volt battery's contacts on a tireless axle (powered or not, doesn't matter) in order to have wheels spinning. -I apply a small alcohol soaked cloth on every tireless wheel (for unpowered axles on CC units, manually turn one wheel while applying cloth on the other). -For a tire equipped wheel, one can do the same on its flanges only. Works for DC. Didn't find a solution yet for when my locomotives are DCC converted. Dom
