I have two locomotives that hare haveing troubles.
One is an SD60M, unknown Manufactures, but probably a Railpower Products unit. Its motor is very loud and it stalls on turnouts. I have tried lubricating the engine, but the results were the same, it has a very simple wiring on the inside
The other is an Athearn Ready to Roll GP60M. While running it at K-10 Model trains, it suddenly stopped…causing two trains behind to careen into the units train. I took it apart, and tried the old school of Athearn wiring, but it still won’t run, only the headlights light up.
Assuming open frame motors, I would remove the motors and carefully clean them. Clean the brushes and commutator in particular. Clean wheels, other moving parts, and all electical contacts. Sparingly grease gears and oil axles. A very tiny amount of oil may be applied on the motor shaft bushings in some cases. Re-assemble locomotve. Try bench testing if you can with wire leads to the engine.
On the GP60M remove the motor and connect the wires directly to it. If it runs the problem is associated with pickup. Check the trucks. If it doesn’t run, the problem is with the motor. In that case I would replace the motor.
The stalling sounds like an electrical pick-up problem. Check, clean, and lightly lubricate (with conductive lube) every pick up point. As for the loud motor, if a little lube and run in doesn’t help, it may have to be replaced. Maybe someone else has more on a loud motor. Oh, and while I’m thinking of it, make sure you’re getting power all the way across your turnouts. I have a few Atlas ones that needed a little electrical help.
On the other hand, if the light comes on, it’s not a pick up issue, though it is possible power is not getting to the motor. Try turning the motor by hand and see if it starts to spin. You may have worn brushes, weak brush springs, dirty contacts or commutators, or some other motor problem. Also, check to make sure the drive system doesn’t have some sort of bind or obstruction. Gently turn the driveshafts by hand to check for binding, sticking, or an obstruction. There might be something stuck somewhere. You may have to disassemble the trucks for an inspection. Might as well do a cleaning and lube while you’re at it. If all that fails, remove the motor, and do a bench test.
I had a Bachmann unit that got some oil on the commutator, and it would run a couple minutes, then the oil would get hot, and it would stall. You could smell hot oil after this happened. A
The very first thing you should do with the older unit is to make sure the motor is seated, it’s quite common for them to pop out of their friction mounting during shipping. The light would be on because it’s grounded through the frame. If the motor isn’t seated, the prongs on the bottom of the motor may not be contacting the frame. If you’re getting a lot of noise check the drive train & universals.
I don’t recommend oiling any wheel bearings or axles, the oil will just attract dirt. Athearns have self-lubricating bronze bearings. I would add a very small drop of oil to the motor bearings/drive shaft and some Labelle’s grease to the gears.
I don’t know why I didn’t mention that. I have an Athearn SW-1200 that did the very same thing. If I pushed down on the motor a little the loco would run for a little while then stop. I solved that problem by soldering a wire to the underside of the motor and soldered the other end to the base of the headlight clip. Haven’t had a problem with it since that time. BTW, this loco is analog only if it wasn’t already obvious.[(-D]
I had an Athearn C44-9W that was running erratically. When I checked it out, I found the motor brushes were not moving freely in the brush holders. I rolled a tiny piece of sandpaper, and rotated it around in the brass tubes that hold the motor brushes, until the brushes would slide freely in the holder. Then I stretched the brush springs slightly to increase the pressure on the brushes. Runs fine now.
Most RAILPOWER SD-60’s used an old Athearn BB chassis. A LINE makes a superb drive and top motor replacement I would rate AAA. They also weight the chassis for added pulling power. Warning: If you get this chassis it can ‘spoil’ you.
The Athearn RTR SD-60 is a totally different animal. No similarities due to a 45 year later design, different motor, gears, etc.
You mentioned a dealer ‘K 10’. One of our posters gives him high marks. He could help you plus get you parts from Athearn/Horizon. Trick is knowing what parts to order.
Athearn has used cheap motors and had electrical problems, for years.
Don’t run problems (as opposed to derailment problems) might be lack of juice to motor, or defective motor, or drive train/gear train faults. You can isolate the troubles. Pull the motor out and hook it to power. If it runs smoothly out of the locomotive, it’s OK, if it doesn’t run you have found your problem. With the motor out, rotate the drivetrain/gear train by hand. It should rotate freely, the motors don’t have a lot of torque, so if it is hard to rotate by hand, that’s your problem.
For electrical problems, the traditional fix is to run real wire from the motor brushes to the truck mounted pickups, bypassing any sliding wiping contact strips. Hardware stores carry terminal lugs called 1/4 inch Fastons which slide nicely over the wiper strips coming up from the trucks. The Fastons make soldering unnecessary, permitting disassembly of the locomotive without use of a soldering iron. If the headlamp[s] go dark when the locomotive stops,you have an electrical problem. In stubborn intermittant cases, you can tack a small 12 V bulb across the motor brushes and let the bulb hang out a cab window where you can see it. If the bulb stays lit went the locomotive stops, the wiring is OK. Good locomotives pickup juice from all wheels.