I’ve been grappling with a problem-child P1K RS-2 off and on for several days. At first I thought its poor running was due to bad electrical pickup, but after disassembling it I’ve found that the problem lies in the gears binding in one of the trucks. I took the truck apart, cleaned off the gears with a toothbrush, wiped down the gear tower, and reassembled everything using a very light application of gear grease. After two iterations of that process, the truck now at least rolls on my workbench, which it really didn’t want to do before, though still not nearly as freely as the other truck which I haven’t even touched. I can still feel it “catching.”
Is this a case of just repeating the process several times hoping for incremental improvements (The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves)? Or could there be something more sinister at work preventing the gears from working smoothly?
If what you’ve been doing has caused improvement (as you say), then keep doing it until improvement stops. It sounds like you’ve been removing hardened gear grease (or something else causing a problem). Until it’s all out, you don’t know if there’s an additional problem.
If it’s still happening after all the glup is removed, check the timing of the bind. That should tell you which gears are having a problem. Also, I think I’d try just putting the wheelsets in and making sure they were happy. Basically, play around with the various parts until all is revealed.
Should you find that there’s a true gear bind, tradition calls for applying Pearl Drops toothpaste to the offending gear and running it until the high spot is worn away. Then fully remove the toothpaste, and you’re done. Except for re-assembly and lubrication.
I’ll second cacole’s suggestion. Perhaps a bit of flash? Close inspection is about the only way to catch that.
You didn’t mention specifically ruling out a common issue by checking the axle gear. The RS2 isn’t subject to a reputation like the infamous P2K GP gears, but any gear can potentially break so could have happened here. If that’s it, replacement is the solution.