blue box athearn runs faster forward that in reverse. why?

[the nitro man]

i bought a brand new blue box athearn sd40-2 powered engine a few days back. i put it on the track today just to check it out & it runs faster forward that it does in reverse. what would cause this? i've never had an athearn do that. are there any fix's?

[jonathan]

Nitro,

Your brand new athearn kit may not be as new as you think.  Athearn has not produced kits for a while.  Your problem may be age related.  A good cleaning is in order.  I like building those kits, that I can no longer find.  But the ones I have built needed cleaning, lubrication... and I rewired them to make them better runners.  I had one that actually ran better in reverse than forward.  After cleaning, lubing, and rewiring, it ran fine in both directions.  Another problem I had was the worm gear cover not being completely snapped on its housing.  That led to funky running until I discovered the problem.

Open the shell and have a close look at how the parts mesh.  Are they dry?  Are the wheels smooth or sticky?

Just a few suggestions.  Hope that helps.

Regards,

Jonathan

[jonathan]

My apologies, by blue box, you meant ready to roll.  Age is getting to me.  Again, I had a NEW Athearn GP40-2 that ran funny.  It ALSO had a worm gear cover that was not properly seated (QA).  After properly seating the worm gear cover, all was well.

Will try better next time.

Jonathan

[ABC]

When somebody says Blue Box Athearn, I would think they were talking about the kits and not the rtr.

[the nitro man]

it's an old blue box kit. neither the wheels or motor commuter had any signs of usage. i hard wire all my athearn engines, just haven't done this one yet. I'll break it open & pull the motor & check it first before going any further. if it runs fine out of the frame I'll clean & lube everything, hard wire it, & try it again. I'll check the worm gear covers as well. thanks, Jerry

[Len]

Speaking of Athearn 'blue box kits', for any who haven't seen the official announcement yet:

Athearn News Special Announcement

October 16, 2009


Greetings,

Effective immediately, we here at Athearn have made the difficult decision to discontinue the production of our Blue Box line of kits. There were several factors that contributed to this extremely challenging decision however, the primary issue revolved around affordability and ensuring that our Blue Box kit pricing remain aligned with what the market can bear. Unfortunately, due to increased manufacturing and labor costs it has been determined that we are no longer able to continue offering kits at competitive price points as compared to our already assembled products.

For over 50 years the Athearn Blue Box kits have been sold worldwide, bringing happiness, joy and excitement to thousands of model railroad enthusiasts. Your passion for these products has allowed us to thrive and grow into the industry leader you still support today, and for that we are eternally grateful. Moving forward this will allow us to dedicate more resources to new and exciting projects in our Ready To Roll, Genesis and Roundhouse lines for another 50 years, or more.

We will continue to support all service and warranty needs on Blue Box kits from our headquarters in Long Beach, California. You can find our contact information here.

The Folks at Athearn

Guess they'll be showing up on e-Bay as "Rare and hard to find" soon.

Len

[the nitro man]

i took the motor out last night & it would run faster one way than the other out of the frame. i took it apart, cleaned & lubed it & it still did it. i never seen anything wrong with it. i put another athearn motor in it & she runs fine now. it was a bad motor i guess.

[jonathan]

Glad you got it fixed.  I didn't even know a motor could behave that way.

Regards,

Jonathan

[pipefitter]

I occasionally have an Athearn motor that is mechanically noisy or runs badly. I have found that the commutator on some has a burr or raised edge on one or more of the segments. The brushes then bounce over that raised edge (it eats the brushes up too). This also might explain why a motor would run with less mechanical resistance in one direction only. I have repaired this by removing the motor from the model. Take a dental pick and check between the commutator segments for any crud. Run the motor from a power pack while gently applying an alcohol wetted Q-tip to the commutator to remove any grease. The apply a typing eraser tip (the pencil type) to the running commutator in both directions. Sometimes you can feel a roughness go away while doing this. You will also observe the commutator get bright and shiny. Be careful as you're removing material from the motor. Then with the motor running give the commutator a good blast with a compressed air can all over and in both running directions. Apply appropriate oil to the shaft bearings at each end and test run before reinstalling the motor. I recently did this to a used purchase and turned a noisy loco into a smooth, quiet running gem. Hope this helps

Cheers, Robert

[the nitro man]

that "would have helped, but i tore the commuter off the motor trying to get off a flywheel.

i would guess that would have fixed it. everything looked very good. i did take some 400 grit to the commuter & polished it real good, & that didn't help at all. but what you say makes sense. that's about all that could put resistance on it more in one direction that the other. one question though, whats a typing eraser?

[jonathan]

Some of us learned to type on mechanical typewriters (not plugged into a wall).  A typing eraser was harder than a pencil eraser.  Once upon a time it was the only way to correct your mistakes.  Back then we were allowed three mistakes a page.  It would take to long to be perfect...

R,

J

[the nitro man]

are the typing eraser's still available?

[pipefitter]

are the typing eraser's still available?

That's a good question. I need to get to an office supply store and buy a couple of dozen, hoping that will last me until I'm dead (I'm 60). I hope they still make them.

A typing eraser is like a wood pencil, except instead of a lead there is a abrasive eraser inside. You sharpen it in a pencil sharpener giving a sharp point to the eraser. Some had a plastic brush at the other end which was used to brush eraser crumbs out of a typewriter mechanism. Now I guess you're going to ask me what a pencil sharpener is 

A type eraser is an ink version, more abrasive than the soft ones used for pencil markings. Yet the abrasive is in a soft rubber matrix which is more forgiving than a hard file or sand paper. I used to work on electronics for the Navy and used these erasers for burnishing small copper contacts. I imagine that 400 paper would not be a very good idea for these small motor parts.

Robert

[ABC]

I am pretty sure it is the same as the older ink erasers that could be found on pens (not the newer ones, the erasers on the newer pens appear to be similar to pencil eraser).

[the nitro man]

i misspoken, i didn't use 400, it was 800. i wasn't thinking when i said that.

what's a pencil sharpener? just kidding. i would like to have one of those old crank style sharpeners.