For the first few months my Stewart F-9 ran great and quite. Then it started making a whining sound. I lubed the amateurs behind the flywheels, drop or two on the worm gear and all was good. Well for about 2 hours that is. Started to make sound again, this time all I oiled was behind the flywheels and sound was gone again, this time for only about a half hour.
Last time I went to get some more Labelle 108, LHS was out. I was told and sold Atlas 191 motor bearing oil. That is what I have been using.
I think I am oiling the right spot because the sound goes away for awhile.
Well obviously you’re problem is that you need to change out the “amateurs” and put in Professionals. They will do a much better job… (Sorry Ken, I just couldn’t help myself [}:)])
I doubt the choice of oil is a problem, you might try putting some grease made for plastics on the worm gear instead of using oil… Or the problem could be something totally different than what you have been treating.
Sounds like the motor’s bearings are giving out. Does it still make the noise if you flip the motor upside-down? If you take the flywheels off?
I have an older Spectrum 8-40CW, and the motor’s bearings made a lot of noise no matter how much oil I added. Flipping it over helped a little, but the noise was still present. I finally tried taking the flywheels off, and the noise was gone! The weight of the flywheels had been causing the noise in the worn out bearings, which also means it should last for a while longer now.
It does sound like the motor bearings are wearing out. It happens. You do need two weights of oils, the thin stuff for motor and wheel bearings, the thicker gear lube for the worms and other gears. Don’t forget the bearings on either side of the worms.
Ray, not a problem. I know I cannot spell, well so does the world now! [:D] I was thinking about using a heaver lube but not in a hurry to do so.
Darth, it never accorded to me to flip the engine up side down and run it. Guess I could have worn out a bearing, but after only say 100 hours? I have a Athearn SD 45-2 RTR that does the something, but it does have way more years and hours under it’s traction motors.
Good news is if the bearings are bad, should be under warranty. Bad news is people are going to be on my back again about to long of trains and such.
Just in case you missed this.
NMRA Press Release.
Due to complaints from modelers about poor quality control all manufactures must now summit a prototype model of all engines, rolling stock, track, turnouts, DCC Systems and decoders for testing at NMRA new testing faculties.
Testing faculties will be located in Maryville IL. Cuda Ken will be in charge of the less than state of the art faculties. Spokesperson stated “when it came to a person to test the quality and endurances Cuda Ken was the only modeler that could truly test there durability in a reasonable time frame. If there equipment can last 30 days under Ken’s control it will last 20 years on other models layouts”!
In responses Digitrax announce they are starting development on a new HO 25 amp decoder! Athearn is all so stopping production of all powered engines and HO scale rolling stock. They are going focus all efforts toward wood train sets.
Cuda Ken, sure glad I did not waste Mopar engines like I do train engines.
Great to hear that you will testing prototype engines. I am sure that when they get your stamp of approval that those engines will be second to none in categories of pulling power, pulling power, longevity, and detail. Looking forward to your reports.
As for the noise issue, my helix is hard on my engines, going up and coming down. So this is the procedure for lubrication:
I put the engine on it, lube the motor bearings with light oil. Let the engine run for a bit, then remove the gear box cover from the axles, put in a good amount of white grease and light gear oil on the axles. Reassemble the cover on the axles, put light gear oil on the tower bearings, and also squirt some more white grease into the gears while the engine is running from the top. Also while it is running another drop or two of light grade oil goes onto the tower gear bearings. The joints also get a drop of heavy bearing oil and after this engine usually runs without any issues.
Darth, do you think a heaver or different oil might help? Engine still runs well. Is there anyway to replaces the bearings, or are they sold only with the motor. The bearing in question, are right behind the flywheel?
If the bearing is bad, did I cause it by pulling 20 cars? I would think I would cook a motor from over working faster than the bearings.
I’d use GL90 [:D] I think he was kidding about the 20W-50. Motor oil isn’t plastic compatible. Stick with the Labelle line, they have a complete line of lubricants for all model railroad purposes.
Not sure if he was kidding or not. Today motor oil should be plastic friendly with all the plastic in todays motors. Heck, my wifes Town Car intake manifold is made of plastic.
No GL90 is a very thick heavy gear lube for heavy duty transmisisons. Hence the [:D]. If you put something as thick as that on a model loco, assuming it didn’t eat the palstic, I doubt the motor would even be able to turn the gears.
Labelle has a nice pack that includes 3 different products that cover most of the things you need. Most palces should have it - if the shop near me has it, K-10 should definitely have it. I forget the numbers - and I’m too lazy to run upstairs and check, but it has 2 weights of oils with the fine tip applicators and a tube of another, plus an extension nozzle or two. There are other brands that have the same kind of thing, and are also probably good, but I’ve always used Labelle’s products.
Hey Cuda Ken I have about 30 stewart F7’s and only one had the problem you described. and it turned out not to be a lube problem. What I found was the universal on one of the worms was to tight against the the end of the drive shaft which in turn made it to tight in the end of the flywheel which put alot of presure on the motor and bearings. all was ok until the motor warmed up and once warm that awful noise would start up. the cure is simple. simply remove the offending worm and gently move the universal joint back on the shaft of the worm. this may or may not help,but it worked for me good luck.