# Tyco 2-8-0 steamer traction tires



## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

Do all the drive wheels on the drive tenders of the Royal Blue and the Chattanooga loco get traction tires or are there certain wheels that get them?

Reason I ask is I got some tires and put them on all four drive wheels of the Royal Blue and it keeps derailing


----------



## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

those little bands only go on the wheels that have the grooves cut into them...otherwise they stick up too much, and do more harm than good . image shows what i mean ..


----------



## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

All my wheels on both loco's are black plastic and I probably did not notice any grooves


----------



## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

I have dis-assembled my Tyco Royal Blue and lubed and cleaned everything I could and it still stumbles around the track, I am not getting good electrical contact with the track and I think it has to do with the traction tires I have. They are not an actual O ring, they look more punched out from a thin piece of flat rubber stock. They look more like a small flat washer except they are rubber. Is there a special place I can get the correct tires for these two loco's? What I think is happening is that they are lifting the tender driver too high letting the two metal contact wheels just a tad to high allowing sporadic contact with the track and at the same time letting it derail too easily. As soon as I get these two loco's running properly I am gonna put them on Ebay and sell them off. 
it's a shame, they are good smokers, with a bright headlight and that cam on the bottom of the loco gives it a little chuff chuff sound and it also puffs the smoke out. They both look brand new, it is just that now I have a bad taste for Tyco and want something better. I will not sell anything that is not working perfectly, unless someone here that knows how to fix them wants to trade me two for one.


----------



## ggnlars (Aug 6, 2013)

These are tender drive loco's right? Post a pix of the wheels with the traction tires in place. They should have a grove on the wheels that take the tires. 

Does the motor run smoothly when power is applied directly to the contact wheels?
Can you visibly see the engine rock when it is running on the track?

Traction tires are really not O-rings. They are flat rings in a diameter slightly smaller than the wheel grove. They have to be thick enough to fill the grove. All tires have to be in place. On the hi torque TYCO drives these are the two plastic wheels on the outside axles from the motor drive. The other wheel on the axle is metal. 

Normally, these units are not sensitive to what kind of tire, just that a tire is in place. 

The electrical contact is sensitive to clean wheels, clean track and the metal axle to metal motor casing contact. 
Larry
llxlocomotives.com


----------



## ggnlars (Aug 6, 2013)

I went back and reviewed your earlier post. Based on your description in those, I'm pretty sure the problem is crud on the communicator. Very common with this type motor. I frequently have a day when I take several of these motors apart and clean the communicator and replace the brushes and springs. It is remarkable how much better the motor runs at that point. It is still a TYCO pancake, but it will do much better than your description in the other post.
Larry


----------



## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

ggnlars said:


> I went back and reviewed your earlier post. Based on your description in those, I'm pretty sure the problem is crud on the communicator. Very common with this type motor. I frequently have a day when I take several of these motors apart and clean the communicator and replace the brushes and springs. It is remarkable how much better the motor runs at that point. It is still a TYCO pancake, but it will do much better than your description in the other post.
> Larry


Did as you suggested cleaned all the electrical contact points, they were fairly clean, with a little apprehension I took the commutator plate off to look at the brushes and clean the armature off, the armature was pretty black and one point was further out then the other, so I guess the springs are shot, after all it has not been run in 15-20 years so I guess the springs have compressed, I stretched out the one spring a tad and it seems to be running much better just not very fast. Needs some breaking in and I guess a new set of brush's and springs will cure the issue, who sells the parts I need???? 
I still want to get rid of them and move up to Bachman or Athern.
The plus parts of these tyco's are they are very good smokers and the 20 drops it takes to fill the smoke tank means they smoke for hours and hours and the headlights are very bright and the locos are very detailed too. I just don't like the idea of the motor being in the tender.


----------



## ggnlars (Aug 6, 2013)

I get my parts from e-bay, reject engines. Probably not right for you. I would visit the Tyco forum again. They probably have source for brush springs and brushes. Black is the brush residue on the communicator. It needed to be cleaned, but the black will happen from a lot of running. A build up of some sort is likely some sort of curd, good that it is gone. I frequently will resort to streching the springs. A little is all that is required. The brushes on these should be roughly 1/8 in long or slightly longer. they are about as long as they are wide. The diameter is about the same as the length. The springs should be a yellow color, not black or brown. Their clean when yellow, stained with something when black or brown. They also carry current, so they need to be clean, at least on both ends.
If you can't find another source, I will check my stash and see if I have any more bad motors with decent springs and brushes.
Good Luck,
Larry
www.llxlocomotives.com


----------



## mtoney (Oct 6, 2012)

I have seen the tender drive Tyco's repowered using the drive chassis from a Bachman 44 or 70 ton diesel, the version with the single motor in the center driving both trucks, not the one with seperate motors in each truck. Folks stuff that into the tender, and voila!, a good running and smoking Royal Blue. In time I plan to do something similar to mine. Another option is the Stanton drive units from NWSL(North West Shortline). These are a self contained drive truck that can be used to repower the tender or other poor running engines. I love my Royal Blue, but like you, wish it would run better. Mike P.S. Here is mine.


----------

