Engine chuffs in reverse not forward

I'd have to suspect the linkage that's activating the chuff switch first.  It's most likely not electronic, this appears to be a mechanical issue.

I'd take the shell off and manually turn the motor in forward and reverse and observe what the chuff switch lever is doing.

Thanks John! I will do that today.

Dave

John, I adjusted the chuff switch the best I could the other night! But I didn't get to finishassembling the engine until today. When I run the engine with no load in forward no chuffs. Reverse chuffs. When I run the engine with four heavyweight passenger cars it chuffs in forward. After running it for awhile it starts to skip a chuff here and there around my layout. Do you think the switch still needs adjusting?

Thanks,

Dave

You may also have a switch that is failing.  It's odd that the load affects it, though I suppose that may change some subtle alignment in the wheels and linkage to the switch.  How did you adjust it?  I find that many times I have to bend the switch lever to get proper activation.

I find it a lot easier to work on stuff like this on a set of test rollers, you can have it under power but not going anywhere.

Yes I did bend the rod to adjust the switch. I believe I will try to bend it a little more and see how that works. Rollers would make this job a lot easier. I just don't screw the shell so I cantake the engine apart quickly. I'm getting good taking it apart.

I normally do all my testing with the shell off, and only put it back on when I have everything on the frame working.  The sounds will work without the shell and lights.

John, I adjusted bent the switch lever a litte more and the chuffing runs perfectly without a load in both forward and reverse. Thank you again for all of you help on this. 

I am having one other problem with this engine. When it runs over a Fastrack 036 switch it seems to loose power momentarily. If its going to slow it will stall on the switch. If it's running faster it will lose power then get it again and speed up for a second before comming back under control.  Could it be I'm not getting power to the engine from the tender? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Glad the chuff switch worked out. I was having a hard time imagining it being much else.

Your other problem is a classic issue with some locomotives, it depends on the spacing of the rollers as a rule.  I have several that do the same thing.  For the steamers, I've added a pickup on the tender and connected it through the tether to the pickups in the locomotive.  I also did that with an A-A pair.  For diesels, one thing to try is to retrofit one of the dual roller pickups to at least one truck.  You can also see if you can turn one pickup around to change the spacing, I was successful on a Williams locomotive doing that.  You may have to scout around and find a different configuration pickup, I have one that I stuck one with a longer arm and it solved the problem.  I did have to take a little metal off the truck to prevent it shorting to the roller, but the end result is it makes it over the switches fine.

Thanks again John. Those tips will get me pointed in the right. I did notice that the pickup rollers on the engine Looked the same as the rollers on the tender. I will also compare the distance between rollers on my other engines with this one.