Can anyone suggest a trusted repairer that could look at a Monitrains F&C chassis, its looks like the drivetrain has been damaged and it won't complete a full 365 turn without binding, the quartering looks to be ok.
Has this chassis been apart?
If so the small gears are not all the same size. They look the same but are slightly different.
If they are put back in the wrong order the chassis will run, but poorly.
This is a very common mistake to make with these Minitrains locos and I have purchased more than one of these locos as 'poor runners' for very little cost and all that was needed was to put the gears back in the right order!
The one thing I haven't been able to do is remove the keeper plate to actually check the gears. I've removed both the motor and cylinders and it still occurs. The wheels rotate and get to the point where some serious force is required to continue, one way is better than the other
As my previous e-mail, if you have owned this loco from new, has the keeper plate ever been removed?
Did it run well and the fault then started for no reason?
Obviously if you purchase it with this fault then you will not know what has been done to the loco before, for all you know the previous owner could have had it apart and then glued the keeper plate back on so it will not come off now!
No I purchased it second hand with no body. I understood it was working and when I gave it a trial it seemed to be ok but with no body it was hard to balance the weight across the chassis. It's intended for a Fourdees body kit
As Minitrains is not going to be making any more of the F&C locos I guess that second hand will be the only way to get one of these chassis, with all the issues that can involve.
There are only two fixable scenarios for your chassis.
First, as I mentioned the gears are in the wrong order.
Second there is a foreign object in the gears.
Sadly if it is a broken or damaged gear, as Minitrains has never supplied any spare parts it may not be fixable at all, unless the parts are taken from another chassis.
The motors can be replaced, they are the very cheap N20 motors that cost under £5 each. (I use the 24-volt versions with the yellow plastic.) These Minitrains motors are not 'coreless', they are three pole low current motors with precious metal wipers in place of brushes. They do need to have shafts at both ends for the flywheel. However they can be used without the flywheel, reducing the height needed for the motor as it is the fine gearing that makes these chassis run so well, but the flywheel does improve them, so it is best fitted if possiable.