A friend of mine provided me a beautiful AM satin silver hi-rail Empire Express Hudson to repair. It sparks a lot and runs terribly erratically. I discovered that both rear drivers are grounding to the chassis (so you get inside to outside rail cross-over, shorting, and sparks). The rear drivers are solid (rims not insulated from hubs), so their connecting rods are "hot". The pushrod and valve timing linkage that the rear-driver connecting rod comes in contact with on the middle driver are both grounded to the chassis through the valve assembly which is held in place by 2 adjacent screws toward the front of the engine (one pair of screws on both sides of the chassis). Something tells me some form of inslulator is missing. Do any of you have this engine to check, and/or ideas about what's missing/wrong? The reason this engine runs at all is the slop in the contact between different pieces at the bolt on the middle driver. The AM 4-8-4 must have a plastic top-hat shaped washer installed where the valve gear is attached along the side of that engine or you get shorts. I think some key, but missing, piece like that is what's wrong with this otherwise great looking steamer, but not sure what that piece is or would look like. Thanks in advance for your help and ideas.

Get on the phone with American Models. 248-437-6800

I emailed Ron B earlier. Haven't the time now to call, but thanks for the number.