I got my first Athearn Genesis HO locomotive. There is some nice detail but overall I am not terribly happy with it (especially since I paid full MSRP). The steps up to the cab had broken off and crushed in the package. Paint on the nose of the cab was rubbed off from packaging.
Anyhow, back to the issue… it seems that the front axle in the rear truck is out of gauge. It pretty much falls off the rail as it is running on the track. Can the wheels be pushed out on the axle? Any suggestions on how?
Thanks for the input,
Peter
*Update: After searching for the issue I found quite a few older posts on the issue. As suggested, I placed the loco on a flat surface and found that one of the wheels on that axle is standing proud about 1/16 of an inch! Basically it just rides over the rail on a corner.
So now the question is, how do I get that sucker down and back into place?
I used brute force on several of mine. My trucks were actually twisted so one corner or the other would not sit flat. I twisted the truck until it set flat. If it is just one wheel that is high, you might want to check the truck and side frame for burrs or see if the truck is not assembled correctly. I doubt the actual axe is bent.
Don’t mess with it. I contacted Athearn directly. They asked me to send the defective truck to them. They sent a replacement within a few days. John Timm
When Athearn first released the Genesis SD70 they were known to have warped front trucks that caused continual detailments. Athearn denied there was a problem for several months until so many people complained that they finally admitted there was a problem, but they still refused to provide free replacements.
I had purchased four of them, two decorated for Illinois Central and two Santa Fe Warbonnets, and had to pay for four replacement trucks at an additional cost of $25 per truck, in order to get them to stay on the track.
I have no trust in the Athearn management or Genesis locomotives after that experience. Although some people like to bash Horizon Hobby for problems with Athearn products, this was before Horizon became the owner of Athearn and the company was touted as “employee owned.”
Alright, some feedback! OK John, how do you get the truck off. I tried lastnight for an hour and couldn’t figure it out. I removed the motor and shaft, that is as far as I could go.
Yeah, I don’t think the axle is bent either. I suspect either the axle is outside of the bushing (in the sideframe) or the side frame is twisted up.
Peter, Be careful not to rip out any of the wires. As I recall, the headlight wires stay connected to the shell. And be sure to save the insulated connectors as the new truck may or may not come with them. I don’t have their toll free number but I spoke with their tech support department. It’s one of the options when you call their main number. It’s on their website
I have the shell off already and removed the motor and shaft. I am down to the frame and trucks. I am pretty sure this is the second run SD70Mac (06 or 07)? Cacole mentions “prying” off the cover on top of the worm gear. I want to make sure I do it correctly.
Peter, I used a small screw driver with a sharp blade and slipped it between the side of the tower and the cover over the worm gear. The plastic is flexible enough that you twist the screw driver and the cover will pop off. The worm gear, driveshaft and bearing all will lift right out. The truck will now be free and resting on the frame. You can then just slide it out. John Timm
I could see from my own closeup the tabs on the cover and did just as you said and pried off the cover. Once off, it is easy to see that the plastic side frame is warped up as the photo below shows. Now, how to fix it… Thanks for your help John!
If you could find a way to safely clamp it on the flat end, the far end as we see it, and then weight the raised corner at left with something quite heavy, it might slowly bend the frame enough over 20 minutes that after its natural reshaping bounceback it is actually quite close to true. Personally, I would remove the axles and flex it by hand for as long as I could stand it, then remount the axles after a 15 minute waiting period to see if it sits better. You may have good results doing that.
Well the only way I can see to possibly fix the side frame is to completely disassemble. That is not real obvious either. Can anyone shed the light on that?
to dis-assemble the truck you need to remove the cover on the bottom of the truck first. It’s held on by four clips which can be released with a small screw driver from the top. Once the cover is removed, the side frames will slide off.
I attempted to fix this problem by gluing the sideframe to the truck frame with CA. That did work for a couple of times around the track but failed. So I called up David at Athearn Customer Support and he said send the truck to us and we will fix or replace it. So that is what I am going to do.
If the copper plate that is between the frame and wheels is bent outward,carefully and gently take a needle nose pliers and bend the copper plate inward.Most likely the wheel is not going into the hole of the copper plate.I had the same problem with my IC SD70 #1006.Now it works fine.
The copper plate appeared to be just fine. The only thing I can relate this problem to was that the sideframe was bent/warped up at the end causing the wheel to lift. I ended up gluing the sideframe to the truck frame at just the right spot causing the wheel to be lower. It appears to be working. Granted I won’t ever be able to disassemble the truck completely but I really don’t expect I will. knock knock.
