I just purchased a slightly used HO Intermountain F7B with QSI sound. Out of the box it would not start to move until speed step 17 (of 128) and then it stalled every few inches. I have traced the problem to binding idler gears in one of the trucks. I have cleaned out the old grease (it seemed fine) and closely examined the gears. There are no burrs or cracks or contamination between the cogs. There is no apparent wear on the gears, or their axles or the gear box. I have reassembled the idler gears only (no wheels sets or worm gear) using Labelle #106 and the problem persists.
Intermountain does not list parts on their website so I have sent them an e-mail asking how to get a replacement truck. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Has anyone experienced this?
That’s quite a rare problem to happen on a Regal drive. These are some of the best next to the Stewart/ Kato. The bind still happens even w/o a worm? Even though I’ve never seen it happen, the axle gear could be cracked like that Proto problem, See if the halved wheelsets can spin twisting in opposite directions. Other that a crack in that axle gear the only other way the idlers could ever bind is if the gear moves from it’s locating position within the truck halves (highly unlikely)
I spent a couple more hours examining the truck and gears. I noticed that one of the idler gears was running very close to pins that were molded into each side of the gear housing. I took a chance and removed the pins and the truck seemed to run much smoother. I couldn’t detect any binding so I put the unit back together. Unfortunately the results are only marginally better. The engine still hesitates in forward at speed step 17 but it runs much smoother in reverse, although not without some minor hesitation.[banghead]Thanks for your input.