Got my Challenger

[Joetrain59]

Quick delivery by Trainworld. You folks are so right about tender getting warm. Mine was warm after 1 lap around my small layout!
 I run DC. Can I replace the tsunami decoder with a better dual mode one???
 Thanks,
 Joe D
 Now it does not move! It makes sound, headlight comes on, can feel motor humming. Some kind of bind. It threw a traction tire on rear drivers. Put that back on easy enough.
 Noticed bottom plate screws were very loose. Tightened them a bit, but not all the way. That's when trouble began. I now have screws removed from front driver bottom plate, still no go.
 And I loosened screws on rear driver bottom plate.

[mmagliaro]

Is this an earlier Challenger? 
Check along the sides and make sure you have not bent any of the valve gear inward, just through handling, enough to jam
the crankpins or the rods.

Take a pair of tweezers, and try to wiggle each driver back and forth to see which one is really stuck.  Then make sure
nothing is jamming its rods or pins.

Post pics! (of the offending wheels)

[Joetrain59]

Max I believe it to be version with lower flanges for C55 track. I know it's forward most driver axle. Not even any sideways play on that axle. Going to check what you mentioned. If still no go,I will call athearn, and post pix here.
 Thanks,
 Joe D

[Joetrain59]

Can't get the front bottom plate off of drivers. Seems like "brake" at right/front driver is hung up. But driver is now moving. Going to see if it will go onto tracks and run.
 Here are some pix.

[mmagliaro]

You mean the brake shoe is rubbing the driver?

Can you get some really *close* pictures?   It would really help to get much closer.
Does your camera have a "macro" or "close-up" mode of some sort?   Most cameras do, even point-and-shoot ones.
You need to get in really close, and get it all in sharp focus or it's very hard to see what's going on.

Can you touch leads to the wheels and just run it on its back like you show it in the photo?  If it will jam up there,
it will be a lot easier to see what the problem is (although sometimes, engines only jam up when they are flipped right-side-up).

[Joetrain59]

Going to send it to Athearn. Thanks Max.

[Flagler]

Please tell the rest of the story when you get it back.

[Joetrain59]

The main reason I'm sending it back is I read Mark's review. He urged not to tinker too much with it, as it can be so fragile. I will take some close-up pix today. Could never get the bottom gear plate off, and now 1st engine is disengaged from worm on motor shaft. But the forward engine does free-roll now
 I called Dave at Athearn on Friday, but we played  phone tag.
 Joe D

[talltales]

i bought a challerger on evilbay that had been dropped. the front drivers did not run and the drawbar was broken along with some other details. the connector between the drivers had been knocked off and was a fairly easy fix. the drawbar was a pita. since yours is new,i would send it in to be fixed. they were very helpful amd quick  getting the needed parts to me.

[Joetrain59]

Athearn offers good customer service?
 Pix to be posted in a bit.
 Joe D

[Joetrain59]

Don't know if these closer pix show any clues, but here goes.

[nkalanaga]

I've had trouble with ballast in gears, especially on my Kato EF-15, but with solid cover plates that shouldn't be a problem. 

Oddly, the only locos that seem to have problems with loose ballast are the Kato electrics.  And yes, I do glue my ballast down, and vacuum after it dries.

[Chris333]

I doubt if this is your problem, but this one linkage looks off.


Should be like the red line.

[mark.hinds]

Was this model purchased new?  Reason I ask is that last bottom-view shows all sorts of minor damage to driver tires, flanges, screw heads, the bottom plate (??), etc.  Someone could have taken it apart and then cross-threaded the screws, among other things? 

MH

[mmagliaro]

Since you are sending it back, this is probably all moot, but Chris333's observation about that linkage is the first thing
I noticed.  Those can get flipped the wrong way on a lot of steam models, and then the mechanism will jam because
that thing can't pivot enough when it is flipped the wrong way.   If you get it close, like shown in the pic, you can
usually gently "force it" to kick over the right way.
  That,
I also noted all the little digs and dings in the gear plate.  That, coupled with the fact that you said when you
first got into this you noticed the cover plate screws were loose, makes me thing somebody has been messing around
with this engine before you.  People often loosen the cover plate in desperation when an engine is binding.