Had a clumsy moment with a jig saw and my Walthers SW-1 took a fall off the layout and onto the floor. (don’t ask how [:I]) Any ways, luckily the floor is carpeted and it didn’t smash into a million pieces, but now it runs awfully funny. The motor runs at an extraordinarly high rate of speed while the loco moves along the track very slow. I disassembled it to see what I could figure out and nothing seems to be wrong internally except the shaft coming out of the motor is floppy. Can someone point me in the right direction to attempt a fix? I can do many many things in this hobby, but motor repair ISN’T one of them. I’m sure that I could fix it if only I knew where to begin and what to look for. Thanks in advance!
I would start by making sure the motor is fully seated in the frame. I would suspect that the motor had moved and the drive shafts are trying to fall apart because the motor has moved from it fully seated position. If the drive shafts are slipping that would account for the high revs and slow track speed.
I have one Athearn’s Loco unit that I dropped that did the same thing. I hot glued the motor mounts into the frame while making sure the lower motor contact was good. The unit is my best runner now. Nice and quit while being a strong puller for a switcher.
Well…that didn’t work… I also tried securing that floppy drive shaft with a drop of hot glue and all that did was make the loco run LOUD. Anyone else got any ideas? [banghead]
Uh, what did you glue the drive shaft to? Drive shafts have joints in them to allow the trucks to turn and even lift and lower a bit to accomodate grade transitions. Some amount of flexibility is necessary.
On a big work surface, try removing the bottom cover of the trucks. Usually, there is a tab at the ends or side of the cover that pulls out a bit, and then the cover just pops off. This will give you access to the gears. If the trucks were jolted, this cover may simply have come loose, so the axles are dropping down a bit and the gears are no longer meshing well. While you’re in there, get some Labelle grease and lube the gears - they probably need it. (Don’t try to do this holding the engine in your hand while sitting on the couch watching TV. There are a number of small parts in there which might fall out, so you want to contain them.)
Well, I “de-glued” the shaft (I had glued a small black umbrella shaped piece ; not sure what it’s called; to the shaft as that had seemed way too floppy.) Checked the trucks while operating and the front truck shivered and shaked while running and alot of the racket seemed to be coming from it. Disassembled the front truck and the gears are meshing fine. There was already a good amount of lube in there so I didn’t bother re-lubing. While de-bonding the drive shaft the motor pulled freely out of the frame. It wasn’t secured by any screws or anything. It was seated fine and is held in by the drive shafts nothing else. Once loco is put back together I’m assuming the motor will be secure. Should I glue the motor in anyhow?