Climax Modification to Pick-ups

After several weeks of running the unit started to sputter and eventually stopped running. Upon checking it out I found the pick-up springs from the truck to the body (the two on top of each truck) had weakened and were no longer passing track power from the track to the decoder. The springs had collapsed and tuned to "mush". I checked with Bachmann to see if this had been a problem and I found it had not, but they sent me new pickups any ways as mine were defective at least on one side. Upon examination of the springs I believed they has been overheated. I reasoned they  were likely only designed to pass power up for the lights and the smoke unit and not intended for the truck wheel motor power.
After giving it some thought I modified it by soldiering a jumper wire across each contact as per the photos below. I first removed the trucks as per the instructions and proceeded with the modification.
 


 
 
 

 I took out the center screw and dropped down the truck   swivel mount. I soldered one flexible wire to each brass pad  were they were clear of  everything, near the end. of the brass  plate as per the picture. I remounted the truck swivel mount with the center bolt and fed the wire up through the slot as per the picture. I cut the wire to the correct length and soldered it to the brass clip that hold the spring and pick-up in.

I allowed enough clearance to allow the wire to swing and checked it for binding and rubbing. When all looked to be in order I remounted the truck. While the unit was apart I relubricated it.
The unit has run another 25 hours and no further problem has been encountered.
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