Microace 9600 A9710 - Not running smoothly after considering obvious problems

[Stephen NZ]

I wonder if anyone has any suggestions for improving the running of my Microace 9600 A9710. I bought it through Yahoo Japan, but it seems new when I opened it.

 

The engine is running quite jerkily and is stalling repeatedly in parts of the track even after running it for over an hour in forwards and backwards, so I keep having to nudge it to keep it moving. None of my other engines have this problem on the layout, I've tested voltage everywhere and its fine and some of the stalling points are right next to the power feeds with no rail joins in between. I've cleaned the track with track cleaning rubber and then cleaned the track repeatedly with alcohol and also the wheels on the locomotive. It appears the power pickups are on the two rear wheels of the tender, but I can't see anything obvious there and I've cleaned those wheels too. I can't see anything wrong with the running gear either. I am wondering if this model is super-sensitive in terms of power pickup or does it just need really long running in time. Has anyone else experienced similar problems with this model and found a solution?

Edited August 12, 2021 by disturbman

[disturbman]

If cleaning the track does not change anything, my own reaction would be to clean entirely the mechanism and re-oil/re-grease it. The model is from 2013 and the grease could have hardened. You might also want to clean the pickups.

There could also be something loose that is not obviously loose. I had one model come in as a bad runner until I unbuilt it and put it all back together, one of the pieces was not properly clipped in place. I had bought it second hand.

Someone else with more knowledge will probably come along but these would be my first actions.

[roadstar_na6]

I'd first check if the valve gear and connection rod assembly is correct and if it is, take the shell off and put power directly to the motor pickups and see what happens.

[Stephen NZ]

17 minutes ago, disturbman said:

If cleaning the track does not change anything, my own reaction would be to clean entirely the mechanism and re-oil/re-grease it. The model is from 2013 and the grease could have hardened. You might also want to clean the pickups.

There could also be something loose that is not obviously loose. I had one model come in as a bad runner until I unbuilt it and put it all back together, one of the pieces was not properly clipped in place. I had bought it second hand.

Someone else with more knowledge will probably come along but these would be my first actions.

Okay, thanks. I’ve never tried this before, so a couple of follow up questions… Is there a special oil to use for this? For the pickups, where would they be and how do I clean them?

[disturbman]

I think this post can of help: https://www.orientalexpress.jp/a0021_215-1/ Not a steamer but the poster show a (short) step-by-step process. Tamiya-grease for the truck gears, something lighter for the motor gears (labelle 108 or Kato equivalent), and Uni-Oil for the pickups.

We have a thread where a poster from Australia (alpineaustralia) talked about this, it might be helpful to you to source local products: https://jnsforum.com/community/topic/173-lubricants/ The thread contains also another step-by-step.

Hope that helps.

@cteno4was also recently speaking about trying even light products. But I do not remember which.

edit: it downed me that perhaps an EMU/DMU step-by-step might not be totally useful. You could a search in Japanese with “maintenance MicroAce 9600”, it should return something. Don’t forget to put MicroAce in Japanese too.

Edited August 13, 2021 by disturbman

[Stephen NZ]

20 hours ago, disturbman said:

I think this post can of help: https://www.orientalexpress.jp/a0021_215-1/ Not a steamer but the poster show a (short) step-by-step process. Tamiya-grease for the truck gears, something lighter for the motor gears (labelle 108 or Kato equivalent), and Uni-Oil for the pickups.

We have a thread where a poster from Australia (alpineaustralia) talked about this, it might be helpful to you to source local products: https://jnsforum.com/community/topic/173-lubricants/ The thread contains also another step-by-step.

Hope that helps.

@cteno4was also recently speaking about trying even light products. But I do not remember which.

edit: it downed me that perhaps an EMU/DMU step-by-step might not be totally useful. You could a search in Japanese with “maintenance MicroAce 9600”, it should return something. Don’t forget to put MicroAce in Japanese too.

Thanks for this. I’m afraid in don’t know how do type Japanese and don’t know how to type “maintenance microace 9600”. Would anyone be able to type this for me so I can copy into my search engine?

[Kamome]

マイクロエス9600メンテナンス

 

This article may help if you can translate it. Shows how to dissemble at least.

 

http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~toyoyasu/m130923.htm

 

Also

 

http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~toyoyasu/m121230.htm

Edited August 14, 2021 by Kamome

[Stephen NZ]

5 minutes ago, Kamome said:

マイクロエス9600メンテナンス

 

This article may help if you can translate it. Shows how to dissemble at least.

 

http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~toyoyasu/m130923.htm

Thanks very much for sending me this.  

[disturbman]

30 minutes ago, Stephen NZ said:

Thanks for this. I’m afraid in don’t know how do type Japanese and don’t know how to type “maintenance microace 9600”. Would anyone be able to type this for me so I can copy into my search engine?

Sorry, I do not how to type and speak Japanese either, I think most of us do not, but I have developed ways to cope. A sort of mix between Google translate, Wikipedia and known Japanese resources. When doing search for specific things, like how to disassemble a specific model, I find the image search function quite helpful. At it can help finding sources you might have overlooked when doing a normal, text-based search.

Kamome already answered, but for future reference, マイクロエス is MicroAce in Japanese.