I purchased two Athearn AC4400CW locomotives a couple of years back and they have been running nice up until recently, where now both are making a low squeaking or humming noise. I disassembled the motor from the body and the noise continues… It’s almost like the armature is too far forward or back in the casing or the driveshaft counter weights have thrown the motor off balance. The problem is the motor noise. Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a remedy other that replacing the existing motors but if I did what would I use or am I stuck with Athearn?
CP Buff, I am fighting the same thing with a Athearn RTR SD 50. Have you oiled the motor bushings behind the flywheels?
I did the Athearn Tune Up (If you need a link let me know) and till that point it was fine. One thing I added was I clean the motor with electrical cleaner, now I have a metal to metal sound. I oiled behind the flywheels, sounds goes away for a while. I crank up the speed (it is better than it was the last time I posted about it) the racket comes back.
In my case, I am starting to think I took out the bearings and will need a new motor. But there are many options for Athearn motors other than Athearn.
Try oiling the bearings behind the flywheels first. If that does not fix it, myself and others will post some links for motors.
Cuda Ken
Cuda Ken did you ever check to see if the metal magnet housing is loose on the plastic motor frame?
I am still curious. At least I would know what to expect next tme I buy a RTR Athearn.
Truck I have not done anymore checking at this point. Last night I deiced to run some trains and while I was at it I threw on the SD 50. Funny thing is even with the noise it runs better than the Dash 9 and other SD 50.
I have 4 RTR and there motors do need to be oiled more than my Protos. As I all so posted, the NCE decoders do make them run better than Digitrax decoders.
Cuda Ken
It probably is the bearings making the noise. On most of my Athearns, I’ve found that their motors need more oil than most others to stay quiet.
I was lucky enough to have my Grampa’s Tyco/Mantua 2-6-2 ('74-ish vintage?) & wanted to pay tribute to it & it is getting my version of PrecisionScaleization (yeah, like Cannonized for diesels -he hee) Anyway it has the old open frame wedge motor, & it was a squeely squeaker too. (most likely my fault, I wore the plating of a few spots on the wheels as a kid) . So I was thinking of a conversion myself, but ran across a couple of small ball bearings in a parts box of screws & small RC parts. They were flanged & just happened to fit both the shaft & wedge parts! After the overhaul it really spins now, but I will be interested in scale running these days, but it should be much more consistent being BB. I wrote (emailed) Boca Bearing & they had about 3-4 different bearings that would fit that motor.
So, has anyone else done/considered a BB conversion?
Not to be off topic, but, I know coreless has taken over every where else, will we need 3 wire DCC Decoders/converters to use those? I’ve seen them on auction sites, but not looked into it.
Thanks
Thanx. I’II will try the oil as I once again assumed they would last longer before needing another oiling… I also found that the plastic ends of the motor next to the metal housing pull apart when the top and bottom motor clips are not in there exact proper place… Oiling should do the thing.
Darth, do they make new bearings for the motors? Do you think there is a better lube that could be used if the bearing is wearing out?
Ken
I have heard that a small amount of ATF works for lubricating locomotives.