Are the new nylon worm gears quieter and smoother than the old brass ones, or is there no difference in running quality?
Theyre using the plastic ones on the new RTR and in the Genesis models. That makes me think theyre better but im not sure.
Only time will tell if people start having cracked gear problems with these newer models like there have been with the Athearn Mikado.
As far as running qualities are concerned, there should be no difference in performance between metal and nylon gears.
Cacole is right, only time would tell. My question is for the plasic worm gears, does the toothpaste theory work on it to make it quieter? I have yet to try it. Or is there’s something else I could do or get for quieter operations?
I’m not sure how much difference they make - I have an F7A fitted with the old brass worms and an F7B with the plastic ones, both seem to behave much the same (very quiet for Athearn BB locos!) though the plastic geared example sometimes makes the odd growl or clicking noise - I’ve had the trucks apart a few times and given up trying to find the cause!
maybe the plastic ones are just cheaper?
I know, they are quiet. Mine’s as quiet as my Genesis SD75M, and it’s about 15 years old.
They probably are, but I was wondering about them because the old brass ones in mine have a nasty habit of deforming around the edges where the gear teeth contact, making the engine very noisy.
I don’t know about the plastic ones but I have noticed that if the brass ones get too worn they can make the locomotive perform badly. I recently had this problem with a BB SD40-2 that I used the toothpaste tuning method on. Apparently I did it for too long, as I actually wore down the teeth on the worms and many of the other gears to the point where they were no longer meshing reliably. I ended up replacing the worms with new brass ones which were much “sharper”, as well as some of the idler gears. I did not repeat the toothpaste trick. The trucks roll freely on their own, so I figured that was probably as good as it gets. Now it runs well again. A small amount of plastic compatible grease helps to keep the gears quiet.
The parts on my brass worm gears that should be “sharp” are worn down to being extremely rounded. Makes the engines noisy. Where can I buy new brass worms and bearings?
A point to clarify here. It sounds picky but if you go to order parts or replace something it makes a difference.
The WORM is the brass (now plastic) gear at the top of the gear tower with a spiral cut in it.
The WORM GEAR is the round gear (that has always been plastic) that is under the worm.
I know, picky, picky, but if you order parts and order a worm gear you won’t get the spiral one.
Dave H.
Thanks, I’ll try to remember that. It probably wouldn’t be very good if I ordered 12 worms and got 12 worm gears instead. The name “worm” just doesn’t sound very good, like it’ll be all squishy if you try to pick it up.Who came up with that name anyway?
They look like dried up worms that have curled into a spiral. Has anyone ever tried to use prussian blue to check the mesh of the gears when new? Tooth paste used to work for quick break in on our slot car gears, you just need to completely remove it when done and then relube the gear set. J.R.