cracked gears on the proto 2000s

Inferior material was used in the making of them, that could not handle expansion/contraction over time…when they first learned of it…that was their explanation, but they had many already equipped with them. At the time You could get Free sets through Mfg’er, but that soon stopped…but that’s another story! The one’s I have were run for two yrs’, before they gave out…another set of P2K GP7/9’s that I got at the same time as the others, but never run…were already cracked, in box. They were ATSF Zebra stripe, all different road numbers, at the time. My LHS at the time, gave Me complete wheels, gears, axles for them, because He knew I bought them from Him. That’s where the other story come’s to play…people abused getting the free be’s.

Take Care! [:D]

Frank

And then there are those like me who bought a bunch (11 GP30’s and 4 SD7/'9s) and they were in storage during the time I could have gotten free replacements (and they should be free since I bought my LLP2K engines new and they had defective cracked gears). But snooze and loose. Walthers owns P2K and probably would tell me sorry, you waited too long.

Yes, Walthers has finally cut off the warranty service on all that 15-20 year old LifeLike produced stuff.

I got a nice stock of free axle sets from LifeLike back in the day, and have bought more since.

I have seldom messed with buying the Athearn gears and repairing the axle sets.

None of the Proto replacement axle sets I have installed have ever failed - I have a total of about 60 GP7’s, FA’s & BL2’s - most needed gears, all run great now.

Sheldon

I have a Proto 2000 GP20 and GP30 that I bought for $20 apiece, both had this issue. My local store had the gears in their athearn parts box, and swapping them out was pretty painless. They were noisy while the gears wore in, but not too bad.

Why does Proto 2000 use such cheap breakable gears in the models to begin with?

So far none of my Athearn Genesis Models have had gear problems.

That’s not thinking smart, It seems Proto is trying to “cut costs”.

First of all, they were not “cheap breakable gears” they were made from the same kind of plastic as the Athearn gears.

Second, the actual problem was a wrong size hole for the axle to slide into, stressing the plastic too much, causing it to crack.

Third, this is a 20 year old problem, current, or even recent Proto locos, like the last 8-10 years, do not have this problem. The locos with the problem were produced 15-20 years ago.

BUT, many of them never got sold to consumers, and have been sitting on store or warehouse shelves and are now just being sold and used for the first time.

Storage, especially in cold conditions, makes the defective gears even more prone to fail.

And many more of these locos have sat on the shelves of modelers who never used them, and are continuiously showing up at train shows and on Ebay.

The problem was actually just one or two large runs of defective parts, Life Like gave away tens of thousands of replacement gears WAY BACK when it happened. But they then sold Proto to Walthers and no one can control all the new old stock locos that have never been out of the box and have been sitting around for two decades.

If you buy a new car with a 3 year/36,000 mile warranty, and let it sit in your garage for 5 years before ever driving it - guess what, you don’t have any warranty when you finally start to drive it…so it was pretty nice of LifeLike and Walthers to give out free wheel sets as long as they did - over ten years.

Sheldon

My problem is that my P2K ran with a “thump-thump-thump”. Cracked gears, obviously. It went in the box until I found time to fix it.

Two weeks later my brother got a hold of it, and ran it until it just stopped. I cannot get it to show signs of life. Has it been completely destroyed? Or is there still hope?

Take it apart. Gear probably broke completely and wedged into the rest of the truck locking it up.

It’s not hard, go slow, take notes or pics and strip it down. Nasty factory lube is probably rock like in consistency as well.

It is probably still OK. I have had a few cases where the split gear was spread wide enough that the idler gear that drives the axle gear jams solid into the gap between the spread out teeth of the axle gear.

IF the gear jammed and power was left applied to the motor for enough time the windings could have been damaged. Once the wheels are out put test leads onto the brass contact strips and apply DC or DCC power, as the case may be, and slowly turn up the throttle— the motor of course should spin freely.

It is a simple matter to lay the engine in a foam cradle, bottom up, and using a very small flat-blade screwdriver slip the catches on one side of the truck gear case cover.

Once the cover is off you can gently wiggle and pry the wheelsets out of the housing (truck). The wheels will spin pretty freely if the gear is split.

Good Luck,

Ed

I have a Life Like Proto 2000 Geep and I ordered Athearn #60024 replacement gears. They don’t fit on the stub axles on the back of the Life Like wheels. The axles are too large in diameter. I don’t think I can drill out the new gears to slip onto the axles, and I sure don’t want to hammer/press them on (they will likely split)!

So, a very odd situation. I reached out to NWSL to see what they recommend. I need all four axles replaced.

Which Geep? I have 4 GP7s and the Athearn 60024 fits them all.

–Randy

They are the correct gears, they are a tight fit, you need to press them on. A small vise works well.

The old gears split due to incorrect tolerances and too hard material. Many original gears did not split until years later do to temperature extremes.

I have over 50 Proto locos that I have replaced gears in. After doing 200 wheelsets, I can tell you they fit tight…

Sheldon

Thanks. I will press them on then.

There’s a slight chamfer at the end of the axle stub to help you get the gear started. Be sure to press straight in and don’t bottom out the gear against the back of the wheel, there should be a gap of a few thousandths on either side of the gear to the wheel back face.

Be sure to check the gauge when youre done. When the axle stubs are pressed in too far there is a risk of them touching and shorting.

Good Luck, Ed

I used a fine thread C-clamp to get the job done.

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I have only had one locomotive with the problem so far.

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-Kevin

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I had no issues pressing mine in by hand. Do use an NMRA gauge, even if they aren’t pressed in to far that the backs touch and short, if they are pushed in too far, or not far enough, the loco will do a hop, skip, and a jump over turnouts and possibly derail. If they are not pushed in eavenly, the truck will run skewed and the loco may pick switch points or frogs.

This is not a difficult repair, you just have to use some care and work carefully if you haven’t done it before. While you are in there, clean off the old grease and apply a SMALL amount of plastic-compatible grease like Labelle or similar. The whole gearbox does not need to be packed full.

–Randy

Do you know if the Athearn parts will also work on a Proto 2000 E6 that has the same symptoms?

No, they won’t fit. Walthers has the wheel and gear assembly part# 920-584494.

Jim

IMG_0128_fix by Edmund, on Flickr

Good Luck, Ed

The Athearn gear has 12 teeth so it will work on the Proto 2000 Geeps but the E8/9 uses an 11 tooth gear (and 36"wheels) so the common Athearn gear is not suitable.