My h5 2-6-6-2 (Spectrum) has always been a bit noisy. However I had never broke it in. So I ran it for a several hours over a few days. I happened to be at eye level and notice the the front driver would skip, as in the worm gear/pinion is slipping. It doesn't do it all the time, just under load (when climbing a grade or a long train) Anyone experienced this? I haven't taken it apart yet to look, but thought I would see what experience might be out there.
You could check to make sure that the worm and pinion are aligned properly, but I'd suggest you look at the side rods. Sometimes if they're a little bent, they can catch and cause the engine to behave erratically. I had this problem with both of mine. Carefully bending can get you the clearance you need and then the problem is resolved. At least, that's what I did and mine run really well now. Bullfrog Snot makes these really fine pullers as well. I use it on the driven wheels in the rearmost set of drivers. Some guys have applied it to both front and rear sets with pretty amazing results.
Yeah, I plan on getting some but going to wait till it's a little warmer before having it shipped. I don't want to risk it freezing. I'll look at the side rods, but it's not hopping. In fact when the front drivers start skipping (the wheels are motionless) you can watch the boiler move up and down with the "clicking".
Sounds like an issue with the worm and or main gear to the driver set. These locos only have the middle driver run off the worm. The other drivers are run off the rods.
Had the same issue, tried many fixes, none worked. You'll need to get a front engine from B-Mann parts http://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66_70_118&products_id=349 They're (ouch!) $40.00. This problem ain't gonna cure itself. The plastic gear on the engine tower gets bungled, and you can't just buy a gear to make the fix.
If the loco is new and still under warranty it needs to go back to Bmann. Unless the loco was dropped on somehow otherwise damaged by human error this is a quality control issue that needs to be fixed by Bmann and you should not have to be spending good money to buy parts, instead just about 1/8 th of that cost to get it back to them for them to fix and also be aware if they have quality control issues that can be resolved in future runs. And if the model is the H4, there isn't an H5 release, that issue of noise was resolved with this later release. Sounds like the problem was there when you received it probably because of the faulty gear.
This is the H5, but I am guessing the running gear is the same or nearly identical. That's a shame. May just buy another one and keep one for parts :/
My bad on that one the earlier release was the H5, no longer in production according to some sources, and not listed on Bmann's site. However if you still have a warranty I would still send it in before you shell out some $$ to maybe get another that has the same issue. If they can't fix it most likely what they will do is send you another, this time the better running H4. Bachmann has been good about honoring thier warranty. Either way you will have spent less to resolve the issue.
As an update, I have been looking at the engine before I send it in, as Bachmann sometimes sends back locos utterly different from what you send in from what I have read. What I found was the pin on the gear that interfaces with the worm at the top of the tower had slid partially out, allowing the gear to wobble around. After reseating the pin, it runs better though it still skips on occasion, likely from the plastic gear being slightly damaged while the pin was loose. A penny's worth of weight completely eliminated the slipping. I'll just have to figure out how to get that much weight under the shell. Darn shame it didn't have a cast shell, but I'll see what weight I can slip in.
I sent an H5 back to Bachmann, they made me pay them the price difference to an H4 and sent me back an H4.
