one my cars had squeeky wheels. the trucks are original and are held in place with a pin. i think the car is a Tyco brand. the wheels are replacement metal bachmann wheels. i either need to use a proper lubricant to keep the wheels spinning or replave the trucks which will mean kit bashing the frame to accept trucks that are held in place with machine screws. i would rather use a lubricant. what do you recommend?
I wouldn’t recommend any “wet” lubricants (oil, grease, etc.) because eventually that will cause more problems than just fixing the squeak you’re hearing. I would probably use a dry graphite or similar if I were to lubricate for a wheel squeak. A better alternative to lubricating would be using a truck tuner to ensure proper shape for a wheel axle to spin freely (Micro Mark and Reboxx sell them). The best option would be to find wheel sets that are the exact length for any given freight truck. This of course if you prefer not to modify your rolling stock to use better quality trucks than what Tyco provided. Good luck.
Gidday, While I agree with jasperofzeal I have been known to use a very minute puff of “Hob-E-Lube, Dry White Lube” . Here’s a link…
http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/Item/HL652/page/1
Cheers, the Bear.
I agree with the use of a dry lube - Kadee’s “Grease -'Em” (powdered graphite) works well.
You may also want to check that it’s actually the axle in the sideframe which is making the squeaking. If the wheels rub against the floor or underframe, or especially on tight curves where they might come in contact with the coupler boxes, you’ll get a very similar noise.
If you have cars with underbody detail, wheels can also rub on the brake rigging, as shown on the car below:
Wayne
I take my No.2 lead pencil with a sharp point and stick in the conical journal hole in the truck and spin the pencil several times, which rubs graphite into the bearing surface of the journal. I might do this before; or, after I’ve trued the bearings with the Truck Truing Tool mentioned above.
Are you sure the squeak is not coming from the wheels rubbing on the bottom of the car because the wrong size wheels were used?
Dry graphite or powdered teflon are the best lubricants for wheels because any type of liquid lubricant will attract dirt.
The “Truck Turner” from Micro Mark would be my first choice. It reams out the truck bearings some. The new wheel sets you put in may be just a little long in the axles causing some binding. This little tool is well worth getting.
To loose the “press pin” truck mounts and add 2-56 screws, fill the hole w/ the “stretched Sprue”. Heat a piece of sprue and gently pull. This gives you a tapered plastic dowel that you can trim/ size to fill-in the bolster hole (a bit of experimenting w/ sprue, amount of heat and the pull). Glue in place, trim flush, mark center ( I like to mark by spinning a #11 blade) and drill and tap for the 2-56 screw. This is after you do check that there is no interference problems w/ the truck/ wheels themselves.
i will check to make sure the axels are not rubbing any part of the coupler the coupler box or the screw holding it in place. i don’t think it is because this same car had the same problem once before. i fixed it with graphite. problem went away but now its back. i am hoping for a more permanent fix. i am going to get a truing tool. but will also kit bash the way the truck is mounted. instead of using melted sprue plastic i am going to use JB Weld plastic filler. you break a piece off, knead it until it is all the same color, fill the hole, let it set and harden. then it can be drilled and tapped.
I think you should probably not use the JB Weld. It is probably much harder than the plastic of the car. This will make it more difficult to drill out. I would first see if the hole for the pin is larger than a 2-56 screw. The pin hole for many of the pin-mounted trucks are often close to the tap size for a 2-56 screw. In which case, you can usually just let the screw tap the hole itself. And that way you get a nice tight grip on the screw, ensuring it will not work itself loose anytime soon.
If the hole is too large, the sprue method outlined above is the easiest, fastest, and most reliable.
Many cars which use press-in pins to hold the truck in place don’t require the hole to be filled. For instance, the original Accurail cars readily accepted a 2-56 screw and because the floors were plastic, required no tapping, either.
This Atlas r-t-r cylindrical hopper which I re-built for a friend, wasn’t too difficult to dis-assemble. It also used press-in pins for the trucks, but the pins were shouldered, with a head and wide section within the truck bolster, and a much narrow part which pressed into the body bolster. The hole, however, readily accepted a 1-72 machine screw, and a small brass washer inserted between the truck bolster and the screw head prevented the screw from pulling through the too-large hole in the truck.
Wayne
i have already used the JB Weld on other cars and it works great. this is a fairly new JB Weld product just for plastic. it is ready to drill and tap with my 256 drill and pin vise and tap with my 256 tap. the 256 machine screws fasten into it very nicely on the other cars. no reason to think it will not work on this car.
i should have said the JB Weld is really ready to drill and tap once it has set and hardened.
i stand corrected on something. the tricks are not held on with the pins. instead they are held in place by snapping them through the hole in the frame. i checked and the axle is not rubbing on anything. upon further inspection unless it is kept lubricated with graphite there is a little squeak that gets worse of dry and with the weight of the car. ill just have to keep this one lubed.
Try spreading the truck side frames. It sounds like they are too tight and the lubrication is temporarily quieting the noise.