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Hi all,
My son got the 8043 motorized Excavator for Christmas today. We have been at it all day and are about 3/4 of the way done. I hooked up the battery pack to see what it would do at this point. The left track seems to work fine but I get no movement from the right track. I then proceeded to take it apart back down to the gearcase and re-verify all the gears, motors, etc. Finally got it all back like it was and still no movement on the right track. The motor turns and I see some gears moving but it doesn't seem to translate down to the right track moving.
We are good lego builders but this is very frustrating. I am anticipating a finished product that will not function right and my 10 year old is going to be very devastated.
Anyone have any advice and/or suggestions?
I've done some searches and I see that many in days gone by have had trouble with this. They issued a service pack, etc., etc. This was bought 2 months ago and should be recent. Instructions were on cardboard and my manual is the same as the service updates.
Thanks!
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You might have a completely separate issue but definitely worth a check nonetheless.
Good luck. J.
Did you test the track movement as described in step 38, page 46 book 1?
Did it work? Can you test it now, and does it still work?
If not, then the problem lies with the dark grey cogs, that has to be turned the right side up.
If it works manually, then the problem lies with the gearbox! Pages 67 to 79, same book. Again those pesky cogs - or the spacers on page 70 and 71, there are two kinds, with ridges and without - it is important to not mix them around.
If can also be the red spacers and pins not being aligned - check that they all move correctly when changing "mode" (turning the yellow 4-prong cogs)
And sorry if my technic-jargon is a bit strange, neither technic nor english is my native language ;)
I ended up tearing the whole thing down. I encouraged my son to play with the cargo train and relax. Then I rebuilt the whole thing up to the point where you connect the intricate gearbox to the main body/ treads. At this point I hooked the battery up to it and my son nearly dove into my arms with joy as it drove forward/back, left/right perfectly. So it looks like the day has been salvaged, lol.
I don't know what the problem was but it was apparently big enough. When we build, usually he builds 4 pages, then I build 4 pages. Usually it goes smoothly but with this there are SO MANY things that can go wrong.
Well, thanks for listening to my troubles.
I finished the set and had these spares:
Did I miss anything? I'm a little worried as I have never seen extra gear cogs before. Mine is fully functioning except for that annoying function switch, it doesn't fully engage on one go, I have to keep pushing on the receiver a few times until it engages. Is that normal?
However I'm not sure if its 100% perfect
Also, when I push both knobs forward to move, the right track goes in reverse too. Any idea whats wrong?
I don't get what you mean by the black switch below the lever.
Also, the crane boom takes forever to erect, is this a L.A problem?
A good idea I find when building is attach the motor just by hand every now and again after certain sections like after you build the track base and check everything is turning. Can save you some time as you should be able to see the mechanism working and give you a idea if there is a screw up, always watch out for the 16 tooth clutch gears dark grey gears with a smooth side and a serated side, if you put them backwards they can cause issues, there are 14 of them in the set mainly in the big gear box in front of the motors.