I recently bought a couple of FP7’s of the Yellow box variety. They look beautiful but they both seem to run warm and heat up my transistor throttle on a par with an old Athearn Bluebox motor… and they are not very reliably controlled by my throttle (www.xdford.digitalzones.com)
Is there anything I can do short of a replacement and if I need a replacement motor, is there a convenient “drop in” replacement. My other locos mainly behave themselves with the throttle but these old Atlas ones definitely warm it up uncomfortably. Maybe I am being too particular as they run OK at the club… but that was when I first got them here!
Hmmm, I’ve always thought the old Atlas yellow box were very good runner’s compared to the Athearn of similar age. If you were having trouble with only one of them I would say it is a fluke, but two??
I started this post thinking I had the exact drop in replacment number, but then realized I was thinking of the SD24. Drat. I’ve got some FP7s but can’t look at them as they are in storage. Do you know if the motors are the flat ones similar to the ones used in the SD24? The replacement for that one is the Sigami 1835. NWSL part number 18351-9. As I recall the screw holes are even in the right place and thread for the Atlas screw.
Atlas has the replacement motors in stock. item # 807000 $22.50. BTW Atlas will be increasing the prices of their parts on April 1.
I would first pull the trucks apart and check the lubrication. If these have been inactive for a long time all the grease may have dried up and cause binding and would need to be cleaned up with alcohol and relubed. all the bearing points (including the motor bearings) probably also need relubing with some plastic compatible oil (just a small drop will do). I recomend Hobb-E-Lube or LaBelle. both are available at hobby shops or online. Don’t forget to clean all the wheels.