I have two Blue Box Athearn —9s (which I love). The only complaint I have about these is that when they go around a turn — 22" radius — there is a loud and rapid clicking noise. Both had the problem since they were new.
It sounds like plastic so I am thinking it has to do with the spline/gearboxes but not sure what.
Anyone have this problem? Let me know if you know a fix.
Pop the shell off and run them. If you can, apply power and manually articitulate the trucks. Can be a number of things, including missing thrust washers on the motor (if still equipped with the original) and on each end of the worm gear. Check all the gears, including the axles, in the power trucks for broken or missing teeth. Also make sure the wheels are in guage and that no wires are interfering with the drive shaft.
i had problems with them hitting a turnout but it was just the snowplow on mine.
This may or may not help. I test ran my first -9 withou the shell. As soon as it got into the 22" curve it made terrible noises. #1. i found the wheels out of alignment, fixed that and half the noise went away.Next I insulated the shell with cork sheet. Noise gone. I found out through testing, all of my -9’s will make noise without the shell on a 22" curve. But they perform well. I concluded it doesn’t like 22" curves. Also one of mine had a bent frame. it was bent enough where i couldn’t install the coupler. I did manage to bend it back without snapping the frame.
I had this on a couple of my units too. Most of my problem was caused by the drive shaft wobbling excessively in the “U-joint” fitting nearest the truck tower. I glued the shaft to the fitting on that end only, making sure they were aligned straight before the glue set. It works fine… the shaft can still slide back and forth at the flywheel “U-joints”.
willy6, how thick is the cork sheet you used? I might want to try that next time I open up the loco’s for maintenance. Every little bit helps.
Vampire, the cork sheet is close to paper thin. I bought it on a 3’ roll and used it for tackle box/tool box liners. Also speaking of “cork”, wine bottle corks make good track cleaners.