I have a pair of 20 something year old Athearn HO GP9’s that I want to repower. They currently run but are very loud and take off quite quickly when applying even the smallest amount of power.
I was looking at the ProtoPower West re-powering kits, item #70321. Can anyone offer their thoughts or advice on these?
The Geeps both currently each have a Digitrax DH123 decoder installed, so they would be run with DCC after the new motors are put in.
Thanks!
Jason
I’ve never done one myself…but I’ve heard good things about the PPW kit. Come to think of it, after seeing that page, I’m tempted to repower one of the dead Baldwin S12s sitting on my workbench…
The PPW offerings are great.
Keep in mind that much of the noise is probably coming from the trucks and universals.
Regarding “… take off quite quickly …” - sounds like you need to do some work on the decoder CVs.
I guess the question is why. They are too wide, the tooling is ancient, and as Nigel points out, the noise may well still be there. P2K geeps can be had for a few dollars more than the repower kit.
the ppw motors ar good. my freind uses them when he need a motor for a old engine
Nigel certainly brings up some great points on the noise coming from the gears/joints, I’m going to look into the options there, along with tweaking my CV’s a bit more.
As for the Proto2K Geeps, the reason why I haven’t replaced these is primarily due to them both being custom painted B&M models, that I don’t want to have to pay to redo again. They weren’t done by me, my airbrush skills are certainly lacking.
Thanks everyone for the feedback.
Jason,I will be posting a video on how those BB engines should run WITHOUT the raze mi daze…
Hang in there for a few more.I am recharging my camera batteries.
I just finished a OLD Athearn SW7 with a PPW motor and a Soundtraxx 101LC sound decoder. Runs very well and sounds decent too. I haven’t even played with and CV settings and it runs great.
I would certainly buy more PPW motors for future projects.
Something you may want to consider…The new Athearns have the new hex drive which is supposed to be better. They have better u-joints and drive shafts and I hear that the motors are more quiet. I saw a guy on E-Bay selling complete hex drive re-powering kits for older Athearns. Had everything you needed in one kit. I don’t know if they have one to fit your loco but it might be worth looking into. I think I was doing a search for “Athearn parts” when I found them.
Ok…Heres the way my BB locos run…Yours can run the same way…
Please remember the track is laid directly on my computer desk.
http://s105.photobucket.com/albums/m210/Brakie-2/?action=view¤t=100_1060.flv
http://s105.photobucket.com/albums/m210/Brakie-2/?action=view¤t=100_1061.flv
http://s105.photobucket.com/albums/m210/Brakie-2/?action=view¤t=100_1062.flv
Have you considered buying new replacement engines and removing the guts of the old ones, and then running them as dummies? This option lets you keep the nicely-decorated older engines on your layout, while adding completely new motive power. You also get to run more multi-engine consists.
A dummy is also a great place to put a video camera.
And you can always re-motor it later without losing any of your road engines for running while the re-motoring project is on your workbench.
Why? I can’t figure out all this repowering/replace nonsense when a tweak here and a tweak there will get them to run smooth just like in my videos.IF they would bother to watch 'em.
The old geep that I “neutered” was from the 1960’s, and it was a Hi-F rubber band drive. My other old geep has a motor that barely turns on the bench. If I could have gotten them to run as smoothly as your videos, I would have, but I’m afraid these old-timers were beyond salvation.
In answer to the original questioin, yes, you can repower the old BB Athearns with excellent results. The vast majority of my engines are GP’s which were worked over. I know, newer engines would have been cheaper and better quality. [:-^] But, it was fun! And the final product preforms better than many of the high dollar engines.
My repowering consists of:
*PPW or similar can motor
*Ernst slow gearing
*NWSL nickel silver wheels
*Lots of gear, wiring and motor tweaking.
My GP-9’s will crawl down the track. I’ve recently added LokSound decoders and have had phenominal results! [:D]
Brakie thanks for the clips, yours certainly are a lot quieter than mine. I’m going to spend some time this weekend seeing what I can do to tweak them a bit before I shell out $50 each for repowering kits. I also happened to find this thread, http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/1084710/ShowPost.aspx which offers some good advice on quieting them down.
Don’t bet the farm or you will loose it.I picked up those GP38-2s used and there was a ton of thick grease(lard?) in the gears.I clean and scrubbed off and on for weeks cleaning those units up.
Your BB can run just as smooth with very little tweaking and the cost is $00.00 since the items needed is on or near your work bench.
The GP7 has been remotored with another Athearn BB motor.
Dragenrider,Very nice! I have notice every club I have visited you still see a flock of Athearn GP7s…I suppose a lot of modelers including myself still like those rustic old GP7s.
Thanks, Brakie! I don’t know what it is about those engines. [%-)] They just seem to have an appeal like no other. It must be their toughness, good quality, and heft. Not to mention, they are so easy to work on or modify. BB GP’s are great!
I got a re-powered loco off e-bay. It had a PPW motor in it, albeit an older one and is loaded down with wheel weights. It is a real power hog and I was quite surprised. Even without the shell on, which has the extra weights, it can draw over 1.5 amps which is above the DH123’s rating.
So, make sure and check the draw of whatever motor you plan to re-power with. As I said, this is an older PPW motor but you wouldn’t want to fry a decoder because the new motor draws to much.
Tilden
Here are some Athearn units on my layout. I have retained the original mechanisms. The NP unit has the older style mechanism. The locomotives are very reliable and rarely derail. You get good value with these engines as they are. I could not justify spending time and money upgrading their drives. Adding details, etc, however, was justifiable.
