I bought a nonrunning Bachmann 2-10-0 off the BAY last year and put in a different Bachmann PCB and got it running. However it shortly started running slow and finally the motor Died. After complete disassembly the grease /oil around the axles was hard and the drivers were stiff. After cleaning and proper oil and a new motor it ran great. Then it started to run rough and stall , so started to check again with a test PCB ran fine , but on the track ran bad and heard a little clicking sound at the front when stalled. Flipped it over and the lead truck screw was loose and the spring are had slip away from the truck arm and was shorting on the frame. Readjusted it and tightened the screw and now runs great. I moved the Bell and lettered it for #500 Minneapolis Northfield and Souther
Very persistent. I have found Bachmann locomotives, particularly the steamers, to have many such flaws and loose parts as you described. I won't touch them, but sounds like you got lemonade from a lemon!
The thick grease looked to be nonfactory , maybe someone used the wrong one. This is probably why the motor burned out. However, Bachmann has a great parts catalog on line and ship out fast. On a side note this engine is very detailed and with the small boiler and the wire sand lines was a little difficult to remount the boiler shell. Looks good and runs great now
I have picked up a few used nonrunning Bachmann steam that only had a problem with the DCC decoder and when I replaced with dummy plug ran fine. I do like there steam and there detailing is great , ( at least the spectrum line)
