I contacted Northwest Short Line for info on remotering/regearing my MDC Climax. They said they don’t have anything and it is too difficult. Now I know that some of you have made yours run better. What did you do?
Mostly the problem is getting it moving and noise once it is going. I can live with the noise.
What I would do is sell it and get a Riverossi. Prices for them have got to be pretty good these days.
HI,
But I just made it pretty. Well, maybe pretty is not the word.
Well… That is right good looking. I was thinking you might be able to repower it with power trucks or even another climax.
Your photo does help alot. I think you did a great job on that engine and it is worth keeping.
Chip–I don’t know about re-gearing, but I think a NWSL flat can motor would fit in there pretty well. I don’t have the Climax, but I have the early MDC diesel (which has the same drive) and looking at it, a flat can motor should fit in the space okay. I’d take it to your LHS and eyeball the available motors to see. If I recall correctly, the shaft is 3.32, so look for a motor with that size shaft, and the MDC drive gear should slip on the new shaft without any trouble.
That reply you got from NWSL strikes me as odd, because they seem to make replacement motors for EVERYTHING! I’ve certainly had no trouble finding motors for some of the locos I’ve re-done.
Tom
Progress I think. A guy in a chat room suggested a Sagami 16x31 can motor (16305-9) and a Universal and Bull gear upgrade kit. (188-6) I went to the NWSL sight and I still no luck. The Sagami motor is not listed. Neither is the U-joint Kit
The problem is the Climax is a very old, crude and inexpensive model that MDC made by using the power chassis from their boxcab diesel. The gearing appears to be very low, and this means the motor has to operate at high speed, and this causes noisey vibrations in the plastic shell. I have a Climax and a boxcab diesel.
So just exchanging the motor for another one would probably not quiet it down very much. The trucks and dirveline would also have to be replaced with better meshing gears with a higher or lower ratio so the motor doesn’t have to operate so fast.
The MDC Shay is noisy too, and l aways assumed the motor was the problem. Once while working on the engine, I disconnected the motor from the drivetrain - it was quiet as can be! So the geartrain was causing the noise. NWSL has a regearing kit for this engine, but it was way too expensive for my interest. I later got a Bachmann 3-truck Shay, and since it is so quiet I only use it these days.
If you still want to quiet down the model, it might be an idea to replace the entire power train chassis with one from a small diesel or whatever. Keep in mind the prototypes were small line and logging engines and never did go very fast.
Good luck!
Bob Boudreau
The MDC Climax can be made to run better. May not be easy, but Ron LaFever has done it.
http://www.lafeverclimax.com/
I heard this week that he might no be doing it any longer-lie he had health problems and his workshop burnt down.
I have a MDC Boxcab and a Bachmann 44 Ton GE. They appear to have the same chassis length,so I wonder if the Climax body shell could fit on the good running GE chassis ? On the boxcab I have lubed it,cleaned electrical contacts and wheels. It runs good but noisy on the fore ground track. But on far away track it stalls,thats when I use a yardstick to give it a nudge.I am surprized Walthers doesn’t sell yardsticks. Joe
My runs reasonably well, it is just as noisy as can be. Since I converted a boxcab diesel to a Climax using the MDC kit, I chekced out the innards. Motor had significant cogging action - substituting a can motor will help slow speed running. The flyweel was not very well balanced, and the flywheel shaft did not line up well with the gear shaft.
NWSL actually had a regear kit at one time, and there was at least one article in MR way back on doing this. I believe NWSL’s present position is that the amount of work and parts needed to fix all the problems is cost-prohibitive - especially since the frame would have to be milled substantially to make the model more realistic looking (getting rid of those built-up vertical sides).
Nevertheless, I do plan to rebuild both drivetrain and body on mine one of these days. Motor needs replacing, tubing needs replacing with universals, flywheel needs balancing and/or replacing, flyweel needs some decent bearings. Flywheel should be relocated to line up with motor or pinion gear or directly on one of those shafts. Then I will probably replace bull gear and pinion, but only after putting them in a gearbox with decent bearings. I suspect the NWSL MDC Shay bull gear kit may be just the ticket - or regear with some Bear Locomotive (ex Hobbytown) helical gears. Finally I’ll look at regearing the rest of the drive train.
But even in it’s present noisy state, I saw one on a demo layout at a train show hauling an 8 car ore train at slow speed steadily up 8% grades on 15in radius curves, and then down again, all day long. Hard to beat for less than $30.
joseph2: It sounds like you need to supply more power feeds to that far-away track–that way your locos won’t stall and you can use the yardstick for measurement instead of motion!
I have a couple of those MDC Climax/boxcab kits (one of each) although I haven’t build them precisely because I too want to get a better motor for it. I probably won’t bother with regearing, though.