"C" battery powered engines

I took some of my engines out of storage to run after a very long time, and two engines in particular I find barely move - Plarail 2003 James and Fisher Price circa 2012 Gordon. James almost runs fine, but will slow to a crawl and eventually stop. Gordon is worse. I've tried giving them the "love tap" (hitting them wheel side down on a hard surface, which usually works) but to no avail. I've even tried using "AA" batteries instead of "C" cells. Are they just, dead forever? Is there any kind of fix?

The only thing I could think of is to see if the wire connections are fine. If they aren't you may need to replace those. Another thing is maybe the motors could be dead, so you might need to replace those too.

Have you disassembled the models to see any wire snaps? Also if theres no wire snaps definitely listen to Tharazero1 on the wire snap you should get some tamiya motors and a soldering iron to replace the wires. Iirc Fisher Price Gordon's also very weak so replacing his motor entirely might help.

I suggest you try a little squirt of WD40 into the small slot in the end of the motor casing.

Where were they stored for such a long time Fred?

try remove the motor and reinstall it back to the chassis.  Sometimes the oil and residue clog the engine.

Likewise, I tried to revive my first Edward again and didn't even get a jumpstart (even though I exposed the 9V wires properly since the last time). I decided to clean out the drive unit, but one of the running board screws is too hard to remove (dried up paint from my poor cosmetic restoration attempt). While I did manage to remove some fluff and residue, there must be much more than what I saw from outside. The wire connections looked alright from what I could tell, and the screw might need a few more attempts until the dried paint comes out. Now I know what a good decision I made by getting the TrackMaster one before 2014 (the tables have turned). After succeeding to get the running board off, I'll take out the motor and see if it's only clogged and the wires are in place.

(09-27-2020, 03:13 PM)Super Wrote: Where were they stored for such a long time Fred?

I'd say about six, seven years.

(09-27-2020, 03:34 AM)Tharazero1 Wrote: The only thing I could think of is to see if the wire connections are fine. If they aren't you may need to replace those. Another thing is maybe the motors could be dead, so you might need to replace those too.

The wire connections seem fine to me, cosmetically that is. I could try to check out the motors.

Where were they stored Fred?

Oh! In my basement. It's pretty well climate controlled, not damp or dry or anything like that.