After determining that some older P2ks of mine were hopping unhappily along the track, forum members alerted me to the P2K problem of cracked center gears. However, it seems that the problem is not so mysterious. For those who are interested here is the low down from Larry at Walthers parts. (Apparently it is not as simple as Proto 2000s being notorious for split gears)
A few years back, two machines were putting out the an axle/gear assembly #584-408. One machine was cutting undersized center holes and forcing the axle through.[:-^] In time the pressure would split these gears, even on NIB locos that had never been out of the box. Trouble is, these faulty axles were tossed into the same bin as all the good ones from the other machine. It was just the luck of the draw which ones were inserted into some of these older locos, including BL2s and a lot of the GPs and FAs. Some locos would have one, more, or none of the flawed sets. Therefore, if you have an axle/gear set now that isn’t split, it isn’t going to split in all likelihood.[:D] So one doesn’t have to order more than necessary if thinking that all sets are likely to “go” in the future.
To test how many one needs, try to spin the axle with your thumb. Broken ones will spin if the gear is split and therefore loose. Axle/gear sets that cannot be spun with the thumb are probably going to remain fine in the future as the pressure would have split them by now if it was a bad set. So I have 3 locos that need at least one axle. Without doing the test I would have had to order 12 axles. I also have two other BL2s that have always been as smooth as can be.
Replacement sets are $3 from Walthers. If you purchased the loco new, and can prove it, your parts are free. [:)]
I have 2 GP 30’s that had all 4 axles cracked. Walthers sent out the new ones free of charge. No questions asked, great service means repeat customer [:)]
Interesting. Back in the day, the guy from Lifelike said the drawings were made here in American measurements. When they went to China for parts, the Chinese took the closest available steel shaft they had. Since metric and English do not translate exactly, the shaft was to big for the hole in the gear. This was corrected by changing the gear. Sound more plausible to me (ex molding operator) than the Walthers story.
At first I thought it was the ton of grease LL used making the plastic soft…I clean this ton of grease out of the gear box and lightly oil around and lightly grease the gears.Oddly this seem to help until I replace my Athearn units at the club-I wanted to “rest” my Athearn fleet since they been on the layout(at that time) for 5 years of medium to heavy use and needed a general servicing…The crack gears started showing up 3-4 weeks later on almost a weekly bases.This does not include those locomotives that had crack gears from the box just the ones I put in service without the gear upgrade.I used Athearn gears for replacement instead of LL-just in case the weak gear problem wasn’t solved.
I am incline to think it was a combination of soft plastic and the axle rod use during the molding process…
To bad beautifully detailed locomotives had to suffer from serious gear problems…That hurt sells since you can still find the early runs at train shows for $35.00-50.00 and the dealer packs them up at closing time.