Lionel Century Club 773

If you are running in conventional, the program switch may be in program and lock it in one direction; if running in TMCC, it may have a bad motor driver board; in 1997 Lionel used an LCRU or first generation motor driver board; still available but would definitely recommend and AC commander from Electric RR as a replacement; Falcon70

I fried the LCRU in my CC 773 Hudson a couple months ag  After 20 years of being careful...ooops.

I got the ac commander from ERR, and all is well.

Sid, you may want/need to go this route as well.  It's not hard to do, especially since I read where you've already been inside to get at the radio board.

So you gutted the inside of yours and put a ac commander from electric railroad in. So how did you connect the sounds with wireless tether?

Great thread, and I to have this engine, still new, in the actual Century Club Display Case.  Guess I better check it out soon, if it does have problems, at least it can be repaired. It would be nice to turn it into a Legacy System Sreamer. If that were a consideration, then I would Get Gunrunner Johns Super Chuffer unit. Wow, there is a thought.....(It wouldn't be neat to add Steam Whistle!!) 

Those engines need help they all run nasty.   I would do what Larry talked about.  Trick it out with a good can motor, whistle steam, and your choice of ERR or DCS.  

Sid's Trains posted:

I have a Lionel Century Club 773 and have reset it many times and even replaced the radio board but all it does is run in reverse with all the other features working. When I then put it into forward it doesn't move. What is wrong with my engine then?

It's probably got a bad motor driver board. That's the one with 4 triacs or transistors mounted to a heat sink.

I converted my 777 Commodore Vanderbilt with a can motor from Timko and a Cruise Commander. It runs great now.

Sid's Trains posted:

So you gutted the inside of yours and put a ac commander from electric railroad in. So how did you connect the sounds with wireless tether?

 

I didn't.  For now I am running a wired tether.  However, because I love this stuff, I will probably be doing what RoyBoy did a while back with the Timko and DC motor conversion.

When I do, my AC Commander has another loco it will be installed in.

The wireless tether can be cobbled up to run with the ERR stuff, I added a transistor buffer to drive one. 

What's up with all these can motor conversions? These are toys. They are meant to growl, spark and smell of ozone. That is what sets Lionel apart. When Lionel comes out with their new can motored green alcos, I am going to immediately gut those "Williamseque" engines and install a Pullmor and AC commander. I'll even replace the power truck if need be to get Magne-Traction

GREGR, This is not intended to take the Nostalgic Past Versions of the Lionel famous Pulmor Ancient Motor, or designs to the grave yard as... I to was very fond of those older 773's, 1950 Versions, F3's Sante Fe / NYC versions, Growling around the 3 rail Tubular track and switches....But, this in 2017....I am an operator, a sort of 3Rail scale operator and The New Can Motors like Pittman are simply The Very Best in Operation I have ever Seen.   The New VisionLine Big Boy, modern electronics is simply so much more fun to run, (does not need magne traction), and is so Quiet. I am now a true believer in the Can Motor, and wish all of the Century Club 1 engines had the Can motor, Legacy command system....I am not knocking the older Pull Mor motor, just saying, I feel the Can motor system is better at slow speed Operation..... The VL Hudson is one of my Favorites....Happy Railroading...

On the can motor conversion by Timko; does great work but my experience is he used the smaller Mabuchi can motors rather than the Pittman motor; I did not have good luck with the smaller can Mabuchi on my 18009 Mohawk from 1991; big die cast frame/boiler/tender; just did not have enough torque; but others here claim great results with the small diesel Mabuchi motor; went back to the Pullmor and with the AC cmdr and am very happy; found out the Pullmor loves to be "broken in"; gets better with running.  But Frank does great work; maybe he get a Pittman in there!  My info is from about 10 years ago.  Go with a motor driver from ERR.   Good Luck; Falcon70

GregR posted:

What's up with all these can motor conversions? These are toys. They are meant to growl, spark and smell of ozone. That is what sets Lionel apart. When Lionel comes out with their new can motored green alcos, I am going to immediately gut those "Williamseque" engines and install a Pullmor and AC commander. I'll even replace the power truck if need be to get Magne-Traction

Two words: Cruise Control.

For my part, I think Cruise Control is kind of a band-aid.  A good motor and gear ratio will deliver excellent performance without it.

What would really improve any Pullmor-motored loco is a 5- or 7-pole armature.  Jim Bunte of "that other mag" suggested this back in 1993.  Two dozen years later and I'm still hoping.  There's nothing magical about a "can" motor, except that it's hard to work on.  In many cases they run smoother because they have more poles.  Pittman made 7-pole open frame motors by the 1950s if not before.  Some years ago I tested a 763 Hudson which had been refitted with one of these.  It ran as smoothly as anything made today, but I returned it to the seller because it had other issues not related to the motor that were beyond my skills to resolve.

I'm not thrilled with the idea of putting a little Mabuchi motor into heavy scale-sized locos, which are still in my opinion geared pretty tall (low-rpm application.)  If someone can spec a better quality motor that will fit the space, I would consider it.  But for now I'm content to stick with the Pullmor.  For use in a TMCC environment, the AC Commander seems promising.