i bought a previously owned Sinclair Gas Station at York. The car has trouble moving in the garage (needs nudging) but moves OK out of the garage and at the pumps. If I do not nudge it in the garage, the engine sound just continuously runs. Not been inside this unit yet and dont have any diagram of how it works. Is this going to require dasassembly to explore the problem?
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Might sound dumb, can you try it without the car? I had to ask.
The car wheels turn freely. Without the car on the tab, there is sufficient force on the tab, but only outside the garage. Inside the garage I can easily stop the forward progress of the tab with only a light force against it.
Sometimes the mechanism gets sticky and/or the gear wheel/plate gets misaligned. There are a couple of micro switches that control the sound and motion. You'll have to flip it over and undo the 2 million screws on the base and run it to see what's going on. While you're at it, a little graphite on the sliding parts should help. Be careful and have a tray handy to hold all the screws. Believe it or not, the mechanisms on the MTH buildings aren't that complicated.
What I found today was that the moving tab was binding slightly on the side of the slot while in the garage, but not so much outside. So I instinctively grabbed the WD-40 and sprayed that part of the slot. Working now. I need to train myself to grab the graphite and not the WD40! Or, I might have to file the inside of that slot slightly in the garage if it acts up again. Thanks.
Glad you got it working.
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