I have never thought about remotoring anything, because my locos are low to mid priced P2K and Kato. However, before I disassemble my only Athearn (BNSF Dash 9) for parts or industrial scenery bits and pieces, is there any reason I should consider remotoring it or replacing driving gear? It just sounds like crap when it runs. I think it was crap when it was made.
I’ll bet the replacement parts are expensive.
Did you try taking the gear trucks apart and cleaning them?
Usuallly, athearns have some flash still in there. using an xacto blad and cleaning out the gear teeth will help. A dab of pearldrops toothpaste in the gears and running for about 30minutes ot an hour will help too.
If all of that doesn’t help, try running it with the shell off to see if the flywheels are hitting anything. If they are file some of the weight or sand the flywheels down.
I’ve done the both of those to an older P2k SD9 and it worked out nicely.
If it is your motor, you can find some off of ebay for cheap. (I picked up a buheler can motor for 15 bucks, with shipping)
Hmmm…there is plenty you can do to tame an Athearn. Unfortunately it is fast becomming a lost art. Here are a few things to get you going.
The commutator. Clean it with a bit of mineral oil (WD40 and the like). Apply the oil, and use a clean rag to remove the oil from the commutator. You wont beleive the amount of stuff you will remove.
Run tooth paste through the gears. Dissassemble the gears, clean all the old oil or gear lube from the gears and then apply a bit of tooth paste. Re-assemble and run the loco in each direction for 30 minutes or so. Then dissassemble the trucks and clean. Apply some dry grease instead of oil and reassemble.
Give these a try before junking anything. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
David B
Can you remotor it for less than these?
I remotored two old F7’s for under $30 so it’s up to you. Do you think it’s worth it?
Gerome,
Give ‘rebuilding’ your Athearn engine a try:
http://www.mcor-nmra.org/Publications/Articles/Athearn_TuneUp.html
Jim Bernier
Hi Gerome
Many moons ago I went the same route as described above. Pearl Drops tooth polish for the gears, cleaning the motor and even cutting the springs that hold the brushes down. It worked!
Those growlers turned into smooth running engines. It depends on how much time you want to spend. Getting back into HO after a 12 year stint with 3 Rail O so much has changed in HO.
For me I’ll be going with new locomotives. I kept a couple of Atlas models from the mid 80’s and I’ll see if I can convert them to DCC or whatever system when I ready to build the HO layout. Have fun! Worse case a new motor and a few bucks and you are good to go.
Bill
Well you guys got me convinced. That is just the feedback I wondered about. Seems there is hope, and I like tinkering alright.
Even an MAS*H website for old Athearns! Somebody must love’m.
Let you know.
I wired in a Sound Decoder to a P2K BL1.5, it’ll be the weekend though before I can test her out.
BL1.5: BL2 painted as the BL1 demo.
Some time ago (quite some time ago) a friend picked up a used Athearn loco from our LHS’s “junk box”. The loco had been in their window display. One weekend it derailed and kept running and ate its way through most of the rail. He picked it up for a few bucks, cleaned it, lubed it and made some adjustments as mentioned by some of the other posters and he said it ran like a dream - it had just been broken in. He also adjusted the flywheels so that they were ballanced by giving them a twist as necessary.
I’ve converted several of my Athearns to DCC and they run well.
Ray
Here’s a video showing how well the two F7’s I remotored run. They were both originally really load growlers. It’ll give you an idea of how your loco can sound.