I just purchased a new Bowswer C630 diesel. These have been out of production for a little while (at least for my roadname) but I found a dealer selling a new one on e-bay.
The Tsunami sound and controls all work fine but it runs noisy, like a worm gear or something is binding. I have 6 other locos, mostly big steam, all from Bachman and they ran much smoother out of the box than this one. And all have been flawless since.
I’d like to keep it if is easy to repair, but it is new and I haven’t been into one of these before. Should I just pull the shell and go at it?
If it came with the instruction sheet it should have an exploded view to show how everything goes together. By all means take the shell off and figure out what’s making the noise. Bowser locos are known to be smooth quiet runners, this is highly unusual for there to be noise from the mechanism. It IS mechanism noise, and not something coming from the speaker?
I don’t know how OOP your “new” locomotive is, or how long it sat on the seller’s shelf before you bought it but…it may just need a good cleaning and relubed. I have several Bowser/Stewart diesels and they all run as smooth as glass. That’s their usual MO so a rough mechanism might just mean it has some old hardened grease that’s causing the binding.
I’ve got six of the C-630s and one C-636, they all run smooth as silk. Two are from the first run (Stewart) back in, IIRC, 2005 and the other four are more recent and the 636 just arrived Friday!
I would look at the gear tower to be sure the clip is fully engaged that holds the worm onto the truck, which also retains the truck to the chassis.
If that looks OK, then follow what Tom suggests and clean out old lube and start fresh.
Let me know how you make out since I may be able to look at mine as I have several partially disassembled.
Lee English at Bowser is excellent at providing repair parts.
I might add that if anyone has the older Stewart model, Bowser offers a three axle pickup kit, 691-602 that will give your engine 12 wheel pickup instead of eight.
It was sold as new from a dealer, it is in pristine condition and the packaging was complete down to the foam rail protectors and wrap around the loco, but I know that doesn’t guarantee it wasn’t used before. And the C&O roadname hasn’t been available for a while but it came from the factory with Tsunami sound so it shouldn’t be all that old. Years yes, but decades no [:)]
I’ll open it up tomorrow night and take a look. My gut says that it is more than just a lube problem but we will see.
Once you remove the coupler boxes the shell will slide right off. One common problem I seem to have encountered with several makes of HO locomotives is the drive shaft between the gear tower and the fly wheel.
Some use a hex shaped ball end that fits into the flywheel and for some reason they tend to be undersize and will spin in the flywheel.
The Bowser Century uses a “horned ball” so it engages more positively. Still, that shaft is long and skinny, it may have popped out of a universal joint.
I hope your problem is an obvious, quick fix [Y]
I mentioned the gear tower worm clip since it is very easy to get jarred off in shipping.
Stewart always had great customer support and so does Bowser. My first Stewart loco was an F7 A-B set I picked up on eBay, listed as new, and it was all still sealed in the box when it arrived, but the B unit had a broken step - and the piece wasn’t in the sealed plastic baggy it was wrapped in. I called Stewart and they promptly sent me a replacement shell (since it was in current production). So another option may be to contact Bowser and see what they say. The mechanism is still current production even though they have switched over to Loksound sound decoders.
OK guys help me out and walk me through this. It is new territory for me.
Here is what the front worm gear assembly looks like. Looking through the hole I don’t see any lube on the worm but there is some sort of grease on the sides and at the end of the shaft.
Not sure what these parts are that are covering the gearbox but they would have to be removed to get to it. You can see the same glob of grease on the side, this time toward the end of the box.
And here is the circuit board. I was hoping to be able to run the loco with the shell off to see if I can pinpoint the source of vibration, but the headlight wires are keeping that from happening. Do the lighting connectors on the board just pull off? I know to be careful with circuit boards but are these especially sensitive?
What sort of lube should I use? Something that I can get locally would be preferred. The only local hobby shop is a Hobbytown. They do stock some good train stuff so they may have lube made for it. But then again I wouldn’t bet on it.
Nothing jumps out to me as looking wrong so far. Should I keep on disassembling?
The two gray, rectangular boxes are speakers. You can remove the screws and set them aside.
The black clips slide off the edge of the pc board and release the wire. These clips are not very popular with most of us folks that do electronic work on locomotives. They are quick and easy for untrained factory assemblers but not very reliable as far as electrical continuity. I have had a few split in half leaving the wire just hanging in the PC board hole. Most experienced modelers solder the connections to the PC board (decoder).
The board is not particularly sensitive to handling but, especially in dry weather or if your house is dry, you will want to touch something grounded just before handling the board to discharge any stray static.
You can carefully slip off the two clips that hold the headlight wires. Make a careful note to which terminal the red & black go to since the LED is polarity sensitive.
Twist the wire before you put it back on the board. If you don’t solder the wires you should at least trim off the old strands and re-strip the wire to get a clean end to put back in the hole.
I don’t see any obvious problems, either. Once you have those speakers out of the way (and 2 more screws to remove the weight) maybe you can turn the flywheel by hand (finger) and feel for any bumps or hangups and watch for smooth operation of the drive shaft.
You can lay the engine on her back and carefully remove the plastic covers that hold the axles in place but be careful not to dislodge any gears until you note their location for reassembly. (refer to the diagram linked in my earlier thread)
Hobbytown should have Labelle 106 PTFE gear grease, 102 gear oil and 107 bearing oil.
The lube on your model is probably OK though. I would look for another cause once you have the shell removed. Run the engine slowly and use a strong light to wa
Yes the lighting plugs are just press fit, idealy you should solder all of those wiring connections instead of trusting the plastic clips.
Side note, Is there a bearing on the end of the gear tower. If so the bearing could probably use some light oil. I had a P2K BL2 that sounded like a pig being slaughtered until I lubricated the end bearing that supports the worm. Dont know if there is a bearing on your model but just a thought. Wiping up the excess grease wouldnt hurt either. If there are plastic gears under the brass worm you will need plastic compatible grease. Ask for that at your LHS, they probably have it.
If the grease is “pooling” on the same side of the chassis it’s possible…possible that the unit was laying on its side in storage for an extended time, got warm at some point, and the oil migrated to the lowest point? I would pop the plastic top off the worm gear housing and inspect it to see if it’s dry. If it is dry then I’m going to guess that the visible grease along the side is what used to be in the worm gear.
I would clean that first, relube it, then see if that doesn’t improve things. At the very least your locomotive won’t have to work hard to get moving down the track and you’ll be able to spot the real issue more readily.
I use Labelle No. 106 grease for the worm gear and No. 102 oil for the motor bearings and axles. Just a dab is all you need. You don’t want to over-lubricate.
I really appreciate all the responses! You guys are right about the electrical connectors. I am not sure I trust my soldering skills enough to fix it right though.
I got the headlight wire disconnected from the shell, pulled the speakers and the weight, and the rear looks just like the front- nothing obviously wrong. I spun the flywheels by hand and the drive feels smooth. I flipped it over and took some pics underneath. It looks OK except for all the globs of grease oozing out of everywhere.
Here is a video of it running with the loco sound turned off so you guys can hear what I am dealing with. Next step is to figure out how to get into the gearboxes but I am done for the night. I’ll call Hobbytown tomorrow and see what sort of lube they have.
This may sound bizarre, but it’s true … check the drive shaft.
In the picture below, the early run shafts are on the top and the upgraded shafts are on the bottom …
I had a terrible time trying to find the source of that noise and I swore it was the gears. Even after swapping a complete set of gears the problem noise persisted. Ultimately, it was the early straight shaft that would vibrate at speed. The heavier shaft (provided free from Bowser) solved the problem.
So I was curious and I flipped one of my Alcos on her back…
It’s like Déjà vu all over again!
My grease looks just like your grease (except for the cat hair!) This engine has been running (off and on) for over a year. Maybe these engines hit a tank truck of Clam Chowder at a grade crossing?
Judging by the sound and the amount of grease oozing out, I don’t think lack of lube is your problem. You have to open the truck gear case. The frequency of the sound makes it out to be the same RPM as the wheels so it must be an idler gear or axle gear that needs attention.
My Life-Like geeps with the split axle gear have the same pulsating, grinding sound— however I have never heard of any split gear problems ever to come out of Montoursville.
I’m going to take a peek inside my gearcases and see how things are put together in there, AND get rid of all that excess grease… it collects cat hair!
I dunno, I sort of think it IS a lack of lube - all the grease has migrated away from where it is supposed to be, so it looks overlubricated with grease oozing out, but I’ll bet the gears are pretty dry. Also, if there IS so much grease caked in that it is oozing out, and it hasn’t just migrated to one side, that can cause problems too. I would carefully disassemble it all and clean out the old grease and get some good stuff and lubricate it properly (I too use Labelle stuff, all plastic compatible, the grease for the gears and the light or medium oil for bearings). Warm soap and water will clean off the grease, just don’t drop any parts down the drain (don;t ask). Wipe off any oozed grease on parts you can;t take off and wash. Dry everything thoroughly, then apply just a drop or two of grease to the worm and truck gears, and a tiny drop of oil to each bearing.
Those axles float to help track through curves, so no problem there.
The upgraded drive shafts are interesting- I need to check to see which ones my loco has. I don’t remember seeing a section with the larger diameter like that but I could be wrong. All the grease outside the gearbox is not doing any good so I will definitely clean that up. But next step is still to get into the gearboxes to check them out, clean and lube depending on what I find. How do they come apart? And how do the driveshafts come out?
