I ended up taking mine apart, during DCC install. (The board didn't want to slide in) Anyway, I killed performance. frame contact is spotty and pickup affected by whether the shell is on or off. I'm guessing something fell out, or I was too aggressive in "adjusting' the frame. Kato doesn't go to a smaller subassembly, that "mechanism", which is the frame, motor, pickups and tank, a block that separates the frame halves.. (out of stock). I don't have the box insert, that came with the loco (if there was one) #failiNgNscale
I've never seen an exploded view for the NW2, but if you are having pickup problems, you may want to make sure that both ends of each phosphor bronze pickup strip are in contact with the corresponding tab on the truck. Sometimes you need to bend one or both ends of the pickup strip slightly downward with the trucks removed, so that there is always a small amount of pressure on the truck when it is installed. Make sure that both pickup strips are in place properly, too, since these will easily fall out once the shell is removed. The only info on the box insert is in regards to the coupler trip pins, which are shipped loose in a small plastic bag.
Rasputen Thanks. I'll take it apart again and definitely check the strips. Right now I'm sidetracked by working through consisting, with, what I thought would be, the easiest example. Clean good kato e8s with TCS drop in decoders.... but I digress. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
What frame adjustments did you make? If you widened the slots that the board slips into too much, it could be too loose now. The motor clips can also be a bit fussy if they are misaligned or not clipped on the brush caps correctly.
