I have A and B Bachman Plus F7s but find that they are very noisy. They make a growling noise when run. They have hardly been used so this is not a problem of excessiver wear. The body shell seems to amplify the noise. Any suggestion on how to eliminate this problem?
Lou Showers
Good question, I have one too.Mine is a B-unit and it’s a bit noisy also.
This was an issue discussed on another thread earlier this year.
You can apply weather strip adhesive tape to the insides of the body shell, making sure the tape does not touch moving parts. This helps absorb some of the vibration.
Truck gears should be properly lubricated. You can carefully disassemble the truck, inspect for any burs or debris. It the lube is old or from the factory, wash it off with 70% alcohol and an old toothbrush.
A friend taught me the “tooth polish” method of applying plenty of Pearl Drops toothpaste (I use baking soda) inside of the truck gears, reassembling it and running the locomotives continuosly in both directions for several hours. Disassemble the truck, rinse off throughly with alcohol. Check for any burs and apply new lubricant. After reassembly the unit should run much quieter. The abrasive action of the tooth polish actually burnishes the gear cogs to a smoother finish.
The above works well for Athearns. There are some additional steps, but that would depend if your units have a truck motor or a motor that is centered in the frame and connected to the truck gears via drive shafts.
Are you sure it’s the gears? It could be something like dry motor bearings or off-balance flywheels. I have a couple Athearns that each had an off-balance flywheel. The vibration caused a sort of humming-growling sound.
Remove the covers off of the bottom of the trucks and remove all of the lube they put in. In this case a dab will do. Check the wheelsets to make sure that they are installed properly. Back off of the screw that holds the truck to the frame and retighten just snuggly.
Thanks Darth!
Good point. I’ve heard over and over that A-Line flywheels are very good replacements for Athearns. One more thing to check is worm gears. I didn’t want to say too much though as I’m not overly familiar with Bachmann units.
10-4.
I have 2 of A units but havent ran them for a while. I do remember them making a slight noise though.
ICMR
Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]
Thank you everyone for your imput on the the noisy F7’s. I plan to work on them in the near future.
Lou Showers