Someone, ( me ), dropped their brand new Kato SD70ACe locomotive about 6 inches onto a wood shelf on my module When I set it flat it leans to one side now, and the trucks won't make contact correctly for running. I can not find a video of the truck being completely taken apart ONLY replacing the trucks with completely new sets. Can't find a diagram either. Have NOT removed the trucks yet as there are some tiny pieces that might go flying never to be found, or maybe not. Any help appreciated. Anyone completely taken one of these apart, the trucks that is? For now it's back in the jewel case cause I am frustrated that I dropped it 6 inches. Also, how in the heck do you take it apart since it has no screws? Don't need too, don't think, just wondering. It sucks to be OLD. That's what I am blaming it on, even though probably not correct. I just wasn't fast enough to catch it And ONLY 6 inches, it not like SOLID wood Any links to diagrams, YT videos, etc... appreciated. Dang the bad luck. Did the same thing with one of my other locomotives when it was brand new, but got lucky that time Not this one! It happens in this hobby, I guess? IF I need NEW trucks I'll order them later at some point. BTW, whenever I have dropped a locomotive, they have always been new, at least to me, even if preowned. Is it a curse?
I have several of these locomotives, and the trucks like to come loose. I just shove them back in, no disassembly required. I haven't damaged anything yet doing it this way.
@in2tech sorry to hear that! I knew it was no good as soon as I saw the thread title and before I even clicked on it. Traindork has a good suggestion. BUT, would you be able to post some pictures so we can diagnose properly? Katos are pretty robust and done blame yourself. It happens. And don't let the 6 inch fool you, if it hits at the wrong angle, the impact will knock things loose. And that's what most likely happened, something/trucks came loose. There are easy ways to remove Kato shells, especially their SD locos, if we have to. But it might be as easy as just pushing the trucks back in.
On my sole Kato ACe, the trucks simply snap into the chassis with 4 small prongs....... if your loco is leaning, one of 2 things happened........if you are lucky, the prongs on one side popped loose and you should be able to snap them back......the other option is the prongs broke off and you are looking at new trucks.. I would hope for the first because what I would guess is happening is the prongs popped loose, and they are now holding that side of the loco up. If they had broken, the loco would probably sit flat, but the trucks would fall off if you picked the loco up. You can see the 4 prongs in the photo. A word of caution, hold the loco upside down when removing the trucks.......the trucks hold the driveshaft/worm in place.
Yup...just like all the other manufactures. If something is working just fine...let's re engineer it ! There is an old saying. "Newer isn't always better!"
There's a bunch of videos on YouTube, a guy here in Quebec that is constantly taking apart n scale locos and putting them back together. I learned how to work on my n-scale by watching his channel. He's got a video showing him taking the shell off and removing the trucks, and putting it back together, this was a Kato SD70. Maybe this can help.
Had already watched that one and this one. Can't find anything on taking the trucks apart like I could on my old Atlas U25B's? And even though I don't need to now, no one taking the locomotive completely apart. And I have already removed the shell, first thing I did to look at trucks. I did push them in, I guess it's time to remove them and hope I don't lose any tiny parts. Nothing else I can think of. I add some photos, cause it looks like things are not lined up compared to my working one. Good thing I have 2 of the exact same locomotive. That drive shaft seems very delicate? And has tiny pieces. So you can't take the trucks apart to fix things? And Mike Fifer video: Photos coming soon, after watching sports I'll post the good one and the one I dropped.
Best I can do. One n the LEFT or BOTTOM is the dropped one. Looks like the GOLD things are not aligned correctly to me, but have no clue compared to the working one. Sorry best I can do with the photos. Might not help anyone.
Well they have fallen 5 feet to the carpet floor. But better then concrete, depending on how it lands Carpet should be better then concrete? Of course it could hit a table, metal legs, wood shelf etc... before making it to the softer carpet I'm just going to have to remove the trucks, Wish me luck! Please be something simple
Opening a Kato truck is fairly easy, and not really that many small pieces to come out in my experience. I took my Kato ES44AC trucks apart to clean lint once. Look at the end of the truck, there's a small tab, keep your finger over the bottom of the truck and use a jewelers screwdriver to pry the tab off carefully, the bottom plate will come off and you can replace the brass pickup back where it belongs. If you need, tomorrow I can take the bottom plate off my truck and take a picture so you can see what it looks like disassembled, just let me know if you think it might help.
I think I know what you mean with the TAB but pictures can never hurt. Maybe someone else needs the info in the future too? Going to try and remove the trucks later tonight, maybe?
You may be able to fix this without taking the truck apart. The "gold thing"(wipers) does four things - 1 electrical pickup, 2 it pockets neatly into the truck's sideframe, 3 it gives your wheel's axle a place to nest, which then 4 creates a harmonious alignment of all the truck parts allowing them to spin freely. Looking at the picture, it looks like your middle wheel popped out of the pocket and so the gears and wheels aren't in alignment and probably don't roll very well, if at all. You might be able to manipulate that wheel and the wiper to pop the wheel axle point back into the cup on the inner side of the brass strip. Make sure all the wheels are properly seated in the wipers. If everything looks like it's in their proper place, you might be able to run the loco again. Cheers -Mike Edit: Here's a picture of what I think may have happened to illustrate how easy it may be to pop that wheel back in, here you can see that middle wheel is not aligned:
Too late, I removed the one truck, but I can not get the GREY plastic tab out with tweezers, I don't want to break it using small plyers or a small screw driver. Put the one truck on the track and it appears to roll smooth and even. Everyone else in video just pulled the grey part out with their hands?
Yeah looking at that too while I have them off. Easier to see and maybe align. Mike Fifer pulled that GREY plastic part out with his hands, mine won't, yet?
Assuming the truck you removed is the bad one, if it's rolling smoothly now it may be good to go. Simply removing the truck may have popped the wheel back in place. However, admittedly I'm not familiar with the specific anatomy of the ACe so I don't know if that stubborn gray part could be the culprit? Smooth running trucks at least is a good sign that those are in good shape. If anything is off with the trucks you'd know right away. -Mike
Well at least I got the truck back on with the GREY part still in the locomotive. Still has an issue with either the contacts or the trucks. I'll stop for now and let it take a nap in the jewel case for a bit. At least I feel more comfortable working with it. Still not completely sure what the problem is at the moment. It did run, just not smoothly. To me it looks like the wheels are making good contact. Time to play and set this aside for now Thanks for everyone's help. I report back at a later date. Kind of over it for the time being!
Aha, two videos for you... At about 6:00, we see a Kato truck get disassembled are put back together... And this one is specific to the kato sd70ace, how to take out the truck....
Without being mean, have a closer look at the picture of the truck and have a closer look at the far side contact and compare it with the near side contact strip. The far side strip is sitting on top of the grey nub and in the near side it is not.
