C-Liner Pickup Improvements>

[PAL_Houston]

I pulled a Walthers C-Liner off my layout the last time I ran trains, because of frustration over its intermittent pickup.
It's been sitting on my work table since then, and tonight I finally got around to looking at it.
It appears that the brass bearings in the truck, that conduct electricity from the wheels upwards, do not make consistent contact with the brass spring-strips under the chassis that conduct the current to the decoder inputs.

I am thinking about soldering some fine wires from the truck pickups to those brass chassis-strips.
Before doing that, though, I would like to hear about what others have done that solved this issue.
Your advice?

Thanks in advance.

[nkalanaga]

That's what I did on my new Arnold U25Cs, and it worked fine.  One hint here would be to use a wire long enough to bend into a C shape, and as flexible as you can find, so reduce the bending resistance.  A straight wire could restrict truck swing more, even if it is long enough to allow the truck to turn, increasing the risk of derailment on sharper curves.  And please use black wire.  I hated it when the manufacturers used bright red wire back in the 70s!

Before getting out the soldering iron, you might try bending the frame strips down a little more, to increase the pressure on the tops of the truck contacts.  On many Kato and Atlas locos they were a little too straight, and I didn't get good contact on irregular track.  If that works, you'll save a lot of trouble, and if it doesn't, or if they're already bent good with the trucks removed, soldering is still an option.

[rrjim1]

Using wires will surely work and most likely a permanent solution.
I don't like using wires on my locos pickups, so I make sure the wipers on my locos are adjusted correctly. I also use a electrical cleaner/enhancer to keep the contact clean and making contact years down the road.
I have some original run Kato SD40s that sat on a shelf for a couple years and would not run. Appling a very thin coat of the cleaner/enhancer on the truck and motor contacts was all that was needed to bring the locos back to life.
I now apply this product to all my new locos contacts right out of the box. 

[peteski]

I'm not familiar with that model but if its truck-to-chassis pickup design is similar in design to the standard Kato or Atlas locos I would try to figure out if the contacts can be bent in a way which would assure good and continuous contact.

What also greatly improves reliability is polishing the contact areas.  I use a 4-grit fingernail polishing stick on the contact area of the truck pickups (no need to do that to the chassis strips) then I further polish both the the truck pickup contact areas and the flexible strips ion the chassis using a Dremel with a buffing wheel and some metal polish.  That results in a mirror-like finish of the metal surfaces and it results in excellent electrical conductivity.  It doesn't take all that long to do this and IMO, the results are worth it.

[mark dance]

I have 14 of these units (10 A and 4 B) and they are a a main stayof my fleet.  I can echo what has been said so far namely:

• polish the contact surfaces on the wipers and the vertical tip of the brass wheel pick ups. clean any residue with alcohol
• bend the contacts down slightly o assure they maintain contact as the trucks tilt up and down
• most importantly, assure the wipers are adjusted correctly horizontally as in some cases the truck motion can cause the brass tip to ride off of the wipers which then end up then on the inside of the wiper

Hope that helps

md

[Mike C]

 I DCC'd an A B set of these a couple years back .  I didn't have any problem with the contact strip contacting the truck contact , but , I did have a problem with the truck contacts being intermittent .  Drove me crazy  (short trip  ) for a couple hours . Check to see that the wheel contacts are making good contact with the wheels . I had to bend a couple of mine slightly .

[PAL_Houston]

I have 14 of these units (10 A and 4 B) and they are a a main stayof my fleet.  I can echo what has been said so far namely:

• polish the contact surfaces on the wipers and the vertical tip of the brass wheel pick ups. clean any residue with alcohol
• bend the contacts down slightly o assure they maintain contact as the trucks tilt up and down
• most importantly, assure the wipers are adjusted correctly horizontally as in some cases the truck motion can cause the brass tip to ride off of the wipers which then end up then on the inside of the wiper

Hope that helps

md

Thanks, Mark, and everyone.
The first thing I noticed when I pulled the trucks tonight was that the 'wear spots' on the chassis 'spring-strips' were assymetrical.  The next thing I noticed is that the 'spring strips themselves are assymetric, side-to-side.  So, after cleaning and re-lubing, and polishing the contact surfaces, I re-assembled this beast with the long edge of the 'spring-strips' located more to the inside of the chassis, and the short 'tab' on the 'spring strips' towards the outside.

I will report on whether this solves the problem after I get this onto the layout and run it around a bit.

But, we are having a(-nother) thunderstorm tonight, and I am a bit loathe to crank up the DCC.
Just like Stevie Ray Vaughan sang: "well there's floodin' down in Texas"...."dark clouds keep rollin' in..."

[brokemoto]

Mike C, thank you for that hint.   None of my LL FM cab units were showing the problem that the Original Poster described, but I do have an LL BL-2 that was showing the problem.   I did all of the things suggested here, but did so in vain.  It would run allright for a day or two, only to have the stalling show once more.

I bent the contact strips in the trucks in slightly, and, of course, cleaned everything once more.  It has been allright, so far.

[nkalanaga]

I've had a few units, from both Atlas and Kato, where the strips didn't like to stay in place, and the truck contact could get inside the strip.  In my cases, the first hint was usually a derailment, because the truck couldn't pivot freely.  It's interesting that these don't derail when that happens.

[PAL_Houston]

I've had a few units, from both Atlas and Kato, where the strips didn't like to stay in place, and the truck contact could get inside the strip.  In my cases, the first hint was usually a derailment, because the truck couldn't pivot freely.  It's interesting that these don't derail when that happens.

Well, I'd like to claim it is my excellent track work.

However, it's just more likely that this unit only operates very slowly over a couple of diamonds and a switch or 2, because it represents a transfer job from MILW to CBQ at Savanna, Illinois.