Bought a like new MTH Wood Water Tower from Trainz. Came with loose drive gear so was returned for repair. Got it back a few days ago. The spout went up and down as it should for about 10 trips and then stuck in the down position. I'm pretty mechanical capable but not sure how to proceed. What locks the darn thing down, and why would it get stuck? Can I just push it back up without breaking anything?
Any help would be appreciated. NOT impressed with the mechanics in this MTH product!!!!!
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check the 2 chains see if one or both are hung up on a part of the tower as these are notorious for getting hung up keeping the spout either full down or somewhere in between.
if that is not the problem look inside the tower where the gears are should be some screws back them off enough and it should release.
if I remember correctly I actually watched the inner working of it and discovered it had a spot in the area where spout pivots that it would get stuck on so I took 2 small pieces of wood and elmer's glue and made a new stop just in front of that spot and I haven't had an issue since.
hope this helps you Have A Merry Christmas.
$oo
So . . . here's my story. When I received the tower I initially thought is was inoperable until for some reason I jacked the voltage up to 15 and then it worked find. For awhile. Then as told, the spout stuck in the down position.
Removed the motor and gear housing. The gears (with motor removed) had several very "hard" spots when turned. Split the gear housing and found that one gear had some mold flashing on the flat side that was catching the gears of an overlapping gear. Cut off the flashing and sanded a bevel into the adjoining gear teeth to avoid catching. Greased everything up with Labell 106 Teflon plastic safe grease. Due to gear play (cant really see exactly what's happening inside the case) there is still a hard spot, but much better. I ran the gears back and forth many times and it improved, but there is still a hard spot.
Put the thing back together and was amazed to find that it operated just fine at 7.5 volts (half the voltage before). While messing around with it I increased the voltage back to 15 and in two activations it jammed in the down position again. I released the motor screw and it immediately un-jammed.
So . . . here is my belief. a) the gears are marginal, but if cleaned up and greased probably satisfactory. b) the problem with jamming in the down position is due to gear play and too much stall torque on the motor due to too high a operating voltage. c) I suspect that b above is also the cause of so many complaints about the drive gear breaking, and complaints about the high speed of operation.
I plan to operate my towers at no more than 8 volts and will install a separate small transformer if necessary to do so.
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