Hey all, was wondering what everyone does to older athearn blue box locomotives to quite down gear noise, a friend of mine said he files them? Ive heard of using toothpaste. I also heard of using grit from rock tumblers.
Toothpaste. After that, I ignore it, as real loco’s are noisy too. Only noise after my clean/break in service perid I worry about is squeak/squeal, etc… Anything that sounds “off” from normal.
[:-^]
I think you can find everything you need here at this link.
http://www.mcor-nmra.org/Publications/Articles/Athearn_TuneUp.php
Some locos take quite a while to run in and then there are some that are quite beligirant and need help. I have always looked to this guide for help. Works for me. give it a try.
Johnboy out…
The noise of those locos is not from the gears. Even NorthWest Short Line agrees that Athearn gears are well-made and for that reason, does not stock replacement gears for those locomotives. There are on-line tips for tuning the various Athearn motors and the universals of the drive train for quieter performance, and you could simply install a good-quality can motor.
Wayne
The toothpaste people have referred to used to be Pearldrops brand, because it had a mild abrasive in it to help polish and whiten teeth, a toothpaste you wouldn’t want to use all year long for that very reason.
Anyhow, the alleged procedure was to clean out the lubricant of the Athearn gearbox and put the Pearldrops in, run the loco for a peroid of time in each direction to mildly “wear-in” the gears, and then thoroughly clean out that toothpaste and then put some gear lubricant back in. This has been the reported fast way to polish and smooth Athearn gearbox operation.
That said, it will happen naturally with some extended run-in or break-in over time anyway - just a matter of time IMO.