I have a P2K Walther’s Lifelike HO GP-30 DCC Sound, 10 or more years old, that has a screeching problem in it’s drive train. After the loco has run at higher speeds for a few minutes the screeching sound stops but begins again after the engine has been still for a little while. I’ve applied Labelle 102 to the spots I can reach without removing the metal ‘body’, the ends of the flywheel and motor…
and through holes in the bottom…
but it hasn’t helped. The orange wire seen in the first photo running from beneath the decoder and is soldered to the bottom of the frame is preventing me from removing the metal gray body. At least I don’t see a way to do it with cutting or desoldering the wire which I was hoping to avoid. Anyone have suggestions or recommendation or even good educated guesses as to what part of the drive train is causing the screech and how to get to it is appreciated.
I forgot to mention I did remove the covers to the axles at applied a spot of grease to all gears there.
My opinion is that you should cut the orange wire in midspan, and if you’re up to it put a permanent plug-and-socket microconnector in there to allow unplugging and replugging any future time you work on the thing.
We had a recent report of a similar screech that as I recall was related to brushes in the motor. You are unlikely to fix that with that weight in place.
I’ve had old LL Proto diesels where the high-pitched ‘screech’ turned out to be from the well-known Life-Like cracked wheelset / gear problem. The metal axle spins inside the plastic gear, causing the whine. You can get replacement gears cheaply from Athearn, or spend a little more and get new wheelsets with gears from Walthers.
Thanks for the reply. I had thought about cutting the orange wire but not about a microconnector. I don’t know how big those are but there’s not a lot of room to spare between the wire and did of the shell but I’ll check it out.
Someone like Mel can coach you on the best alternative for this. I think there is enough room in the space between the motor and the weight to get something like a 1-pin small JEDEC to be taped.
If there isn’t easy room, splice in about an inch with heat-shrink insulation to the ‘bottom’ end of the wire so the connector can sit on top.
I have had many of those old P2Ks GPs over the years. Those short wires and big weights do make it difficult to access the needed places. The noise is likely from the motor bearings having bits of ten year micro-stuff tucked away in odd places.
You asked for suggestions and I cannot give you this as a recommendation:
But I have fixed such unlocatable squeels by holding the holding the loco under the uncomfortbley hot water faucet…melting and flushing away all of the unseen bits in all of the moving parts as I rotated the loco in all directions. Keeping my hand cupped over the PC board (decoder) and to not get it dowsed.
It dried out just fine in a day…or quicker with blowing and a hair drier if for some reason its an emergency that you have to run the loco sooner.
I know what the experts will say about water and electronics, but the loco is just metal and plastic. It dries out just fine, and only the decoder needs to be bone dry, BTW.
I would run them and the noise disappeared. Then applied fresh, clean Labelle to a steamed cleaned and flushed 10 year old loco.
It could well be the motor. But, cracked gears remain a distinct possibility. I believe that the GP30 has been the greatest culprit of all of the P2K locos suffering from cracked gears over the years.
I’ve fixed several of these, and the noise disappears after the worm shaft bearings are replaced with Athearn bronze bearings. I seem to recall reading about a chemical analysis someone had done on the Life Like originals, which discovered they had a composition that repelled lubrication.
That’s my diagnosis also. I had a Proto 1000 C Liner did this exact thing and they use the same drivetrain.
Cracked gears don’t screech, they thunk or click. I bought a pristine never even run Proto 2000 GP 30 which proved to have cracked gears just while being stored. Walthers supplies the exact same axle set, with improved plastic gears. That’s a drop in repair, takes ten minutes once you know how. But those aren’t the screechers.
I totally disassembled my Proto 1000 C Liner. It’s not actually that difficult. But to get oil into the ends of the motor shafts where they emerge from the motor can you really need to get the motor out. Once I got a tiny bit of Labelle 107 into each motor shaft right where it emerges from the motor case the screech disappeared never to return. Nothing else worked,
As for that orange wire if you have a soldering iron it might surprise you just how easy it is to just touch the iron to the solder point on the frame to release the wire. It’s only a little trickier to reverse this and touch the iron to the solder spot and when it melts then touch the wire to the molten spot until the solder remaining on the wire also melts then take the iron away from the joint. The only trick is to keep the hot joint totally still for the few seconds it takes the joint to solidify after removing the iron, being born with three hands helps…
You can be forgiven for the error of your ways, simply because you have obviously never heard a Proto 2000 cracked axle gear screech. Sure, they thunk and click. They also clunk.
Here is a thread in which modelers can hear them squeal and squall.
I certainly thank everyone for your input and recommendations. I’ll start with the cracked axle gear problem just to rule it out. I’ve had to replace those on other P2K products. If that’s not it then I’ll unsolder the wire, take the weight off and go from there.
My first take is “bad wheelset/gear”. That’s a quick check of course. Just pop the bottom covers and pull a wheel set and see if either wheel EASILY turns by itself. If so, its likely the source of the noise. I’ve had P2K GPs with all the wheelsets in need of replacement, some with only one or two, and a couple with all OK.
