[TheLordsServant]

Hello all,

I received my Mallet from Navin at Aristo-Craft yesterday, and it is actually pretty darn good. It's not as quiet as an LGB, but that is to be expected with a locomotive of this size, with two drivetrains and 8 individual gearboxes. As long as the loco is in forward, it is very smooth, and runs good. But when it's in reverse, this all changes. It runs terribly, and sometimes I can watch the front mechanism simply get dragged around by the back mechanism, and the front mechanism is not even turning. I have spent literally hours cleaning the track, and it doesn't seem to have changed anything. I can not think of any explanation why it would be perfectly fine in forward, but in reverse it's not. Any thoughts?

 

[Ron Senek]

Check your side rods to see if they are binding up mine did, or listen to hear if motors are turning but wheels not. To do this take rear set off track.

 

[TheLordsServant]

I couldn't find any connecting rod binding and I can hear the motors running. I've contacted the retailer and asked for a refund.


Thanks all

 

[Great Western]

You might find the post by Tim Brien, on the Aristo General Forum, entitled "Out of Quarter" interesting. It might shed light on what is happening to your loco and maybe how it happened.

 

[Guest]

Ding ding, round 3....

 

[markoles]

John,

Why? In your thread on the aristo board, you said

I decided to do some further testing, and I had another hobbyist come over and he checked the engine out, and said that how it is running is as smooth as you can expect out of an engine with two drivetrains. Having never owned a mallet of any kind before, I obviously was not familiar with this. Perhaps my expectations are too much. It's not going to run as smooth as a single drivetrain LGB locomotive. It shouldn't, as my LGB loco cost twice what the Aristo product did. I think the gear noise isn't too bad at all, but I notice it more because the locomotive is running on wooden benchwork in a 12X20 foot barn that has no wall covering other than drywall. I think before I ship the locomotive back again, I should run the loco for a while, as perhaps the gears are still wearing in. Would it help to take a video of the locomotive running?



I thought you had gotten this straightened out???

 

[Greg Elmassian]

He did, it's not as quiet as an LGB with a single drivetrain. I think he just has not come back here to update...

Regards, Greg

 

[TheLordsServant]

Yes, I forgot about this thread. As some of you may have seen on the Aristo board, it still has problems running in reverse, most of the time the whole front drivetrain just locks up and fails to move at all. I'm guessing it's the hex shaft on the motor being pushed on too far, but I'm tired of dealing with it, and I'm going to try and get a refund from the dealer.

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Really sounds like one driver is still out of quarter, or what he said about one of the hex drives slipping.

Short of entirely disassembling the unit, return it. You have suffered enough.

Regards, Greg

 

[TheLordsServant]

Jim at G Scale Junction has agreed to handle the return of the locomotive, and will send out a check after the locomotive is picked up. I can personally recommend G Scale Junction as the best retailer I have ever dealt with. I can not recommend him enough.

 

[aceinspp]

Its a same that it did not work out as I have two of them and they run great. Later RJD