Contamination happens sooner or later with every loco. Weather changes can accelerate the process (like if you live in an area where the humidity rises along with the spring temps).

-Mark

Clean the track, clean the wheels, clean axle wiper dimples where the tender truck axle ends insert, clean the drawbar contacts where they rub up against the chassis post on the engine, clean the tips of the tender truck contacts and clean the contact strips inside the tender that said tips brush up against. In short, clean everything that transfers current 

-Mark

All of Bachmann's "DCC On Board" (non-sound) decoders have the same functionality. They have very limited features as far as speed matching goes - https://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/images/44913_Decoder_IS.pdf

-Mark

I'd be surprised if you could get it to run even with a new motor. The nylon gears in those old J's are notoriously prone to shrinking and cracking over time.

-Mark

If yours is the old yellow box version, the motors are completely different.

Old -



New -



-Mark

If it's the same as their typical 6-wire plug arrangement it would go like this -



-Mark

Quote from: rnjuice on April 12, 2019, 01:20:24 PM

Quote from: spookshow on April 11, 2019, 06:47:25 AM
Mine runs great and pulls like a horse - http://www.spookshow.net/loco/bachmann482.html

-Mark

Hey Mark, which variant did you get?  Yours looks more robust than mine

NC&StL

-Mark

Quote from: rnjuice on April 12, 2019, 01:18:09 PM
It has no traction, no traction tires

It should have traction tires on the #3 drivers. I'd return it if it doesn't.

-Mark

Mine runs great and pulls like a horse - http://www.spookshow.net/loco/bachmann482.html

-Mark

This place needs me a lot more than TRW does, lol.

-Mark

You could try calling the parts department directly. I've heard that they can sometimes provide parts that are not listed on the website.

-Mark

If it's the latest version of the GP40 (released last year) it will definitely speed up after some break-in time. The one I tested ran like a yard switcher out of the box, but after a few hours of roundy-rounding it eventually became quite the speed demon.

-Mark

It's DCC Ready insofar as specific contacts are provided for wiring up a decoder. But you're right, it's not plug-and-play.

-Mark

Unless he's talking about the old white box versions from the 80's and 90's, they're all DCC Ready or DCC Equipped.

First white box release (1980) -



Revised white box release (1983) -



First Spectrum version (DCC Ready, 2001) -



Second Spectrum version (DCC Equipped, 2010) -



Third Spectrum version (DCC Sound, 2018) -



-Mark

Of the more recent releases there is DCC Ready, DCC-equipped and DCC-Sound. I took a wild guess and assumed he was talking about the DCC-Ready version.

-Mark