It’s just me fooling around again. This time all is well. Have anyone tried cutting the power off on 1 6 axel truck and making it a 3 axel powered?
Working on my Athearn F45/FP45. Trying to lower the noise as usual. I tried all of tthe old tricks and suck. Toothpaste, re balancing the motor, ect.
Then one day the noise hit me. The noise was comming from the front truck and I can’t figure out why. No gears are cracked and nothing is rubbing. So
I left the wiring to the front truck so I would get a laps in power. Removed the housing clip and removed the worm gear. Put the housing clip back on and presto. A smooth and quiet Athearns. With a little added weight in the rear of the loco, it didn’t lose it’s pulling power. Up grade or down. The front truck acts as a dummy now (Free rolling) I also tried this method in my F7. DON’T TRY IT, as it doesn’t work well - even with the super weight. My F7 runs smooth and quiet anyway do to the old Athearn tricks. It just didn’t work for my F45. Now I run my F45 with my kato GP38 (NOT IN A LASH UP) alongside, and I can’t tell if anything is moving (That’s how quiet it is) but it’s moving. What do you guys think about this method? Like Hunter “It works for me”
A Athearn drive is a Athearn drive and in all the years I been smoothing out that drive I am yet to find one I can’t smooth out…Keep trying it can be done.[:D]
I am convinced that most of the noise from an Athearn comes from the drive lines. I am currently trying to smooth out a GP40-2. I have replaced the motor with an A-Line can motor, but the noise is still present. Like the original author stated, it seemed like one truck was noisier than the other. This was infact the case with my GP40-2. It happened to be the end with the most slope to the drive line. The drive shaft with the lesser slope to it was not near as noisy. I also noted that if the drive shaft extension rod is not quite long enough, the two universals will vibrate and make noise.
Greg,For years I been preaching one doesn’t need to change out the motor…For years I knew a small drop of oil will work wonders on this drive as does stick on weight added to the inside top of the shell.This cuts down on the shell chatter…For years “experts” been crying new motors…Well you found out a motor change isn’t really needed…Try a drop off oil on the gears, bearings,drive shafts, and flywheel shaft
and let run at moderate speed for 45 minutes in both directions and see how much smoother this drive will be…
I think the only problem with the motors are the fact they set to high on the mount. This goes back to my original statement. I think the drive lines need to come straight out of the flywheels and be directly in line with the trucks. No slope. I think why people see improvements with installing a new motor is the fact it sets a little lower and straightens out the drive shaft. The reason I noticed this is I got the new motor a little off center while cementing it to the mount. So now it is closer to one end than the other making the drive shaft slope steeper. Slope combined with the two universals per drive shaft make for all the problems.
Over the years I have tried it all. Pearl Drops, oil this, slick 50 that, even shorting the brush springs per others recommendations on improving performance and lowering amps used. Replacing the motor does improve amp use which is important for those running a starter DCC system. Still I think if you could lower the motor more it would provide better operation.
Greg,Indeed the motor must be seated before one starts to smooth the drive out as this will help straighten out the drive train but,like you mention the slope.
Oddly,my newer RTR BB GP38-2 and SD40-2s ran smoothly from the box…I have not looked at the drive to see how its mounted but,do know these drives uses the new hex drive shaft…It is my opinion the new hex drive shafts might be the answer to smoothing the older BB drive out…[;)]
Another thing I have thought for years is the Athearn locomotives lack weight except the “super power” F7…Again the stick on weight cuts the shell chatter down.Of course this chatter is caused by the way Athearn mounts the body and the lack of weight on the drive.