New 4-4-0 IF runs good but noisy gears.

[lvrr325]

None of mine will run on DC once they've been run DCC, even the one I didn't change the address on, so you may need to use the DCC control to make them analog enabled again. 

[bigblock454]

   Well, just a bit of an update. First of all, got the 4-4-0 with transplant tsunami back together with her new speaker (Hi-bass from QSI), that turned out well. I'll post that under appropriate heading. But she's still noisy as ever!! I hooked up a tech II DC power pack to the track and WHOA... It surely didn't operate "normally"!! It lurched then stopped... then headlight flashed a bunch of times (some kind of code I guess). Throttled up a little more, and without moving, it whistled and started chuffing, a little more and it lurched again... it didn't seem to be hurting it, but I certainly wouldn't want to run it that way. BTW, the loco STILL hasn't been "programmed" with it's own address yet. Anyway, I did manage to run it enough that I can hear same "gear noise/whine/growl". I'm thinking I just got "the lemon". Again... she runs perfectly, just noisy. So noisy in fact, that when showing off her new sound upgrade, my wife didn't seem as impressed with my hard work as she couldn't get over the noise, and very bluntly asked "what's THAT noise".... Oh well. Guess it's time to tear into her further. Plan to paint/weather, so I might as well do it the "right way" and take her apart. Don't know how many old hot-rodders read these forums, but sounds like she's equipped with the ol' muncie "rock-crusher"... remember those?? Ugh. I wonder if I can run this loco with boiler/super structure off (probably not) to check and perhaps adjust gear mesh. I'll probably cut and paste this to some other forums and see what else can be learned. Cheers.

Norm

[NarrowMinded]

Sounds like somthing is not wired right, I switch my tsu1000's from dc to Dcc continuosly and I have no problem.

Do you have the cam wipers installed? I had a large scale loco with a tsu one thousand act simular until I set the CV to use the chuff wiper  and not the automatic chuff

[bigblock454]

Hey NM, good to hear from you again. Maybe if I operated or "worked" the tech II throttle some more, things might have smoothed out. I gave like a third of the dials full motion, and "auto whistle" (??) happened, then anything but a smooth throttle up (it took off). Maybe dirty pot in the tech II. No matter, it makes the same noise when moving. Took the loco with me to Timonium Md Scale show, and met with and talked to Mr John Weigel of Peterboro Railroad hobby's (nice gentleman), who walked over to meet Kevin who was operating a narrow guage modular railroad "Sykesville Md" I believe. He promptly invited me to put my loco on their railroad to have a listen! They agreed it wasn't normal, and that it is, more than likely, a problem with the mesh in the gears. Anyway, with all the warranty voiding work I've done, I may as well go through with my plans to look into it further, and maybe learn something in the process. John says that I should be able to operate the loco with the boiler/superstructure off... that should help me when it comes to shimming the motor, making adjustments etc. I didn't install cam and wiper yet, but that would be a good time to do that as well. Thanks again.

Norm

[bigblock454]

Meant to say "who walked me over to meet Kevin ". Two nice guys willing to help a fellow On30'er out!!

Norm

[lvrr325]

Somewhere I've read of guys who used to break in the older Athearn HO diesels using some kind of a goop of what I want to say was a tooth polishing compound of some sort, I think it was an over the counter stuff you could buy anywhere, but a couple of steps harsher than toothpaste (maybe it was even meant for use with dentures).   Does anyone else remember seeing that?  You put the stuff on, ran the engine for a short time (on rollers was fine), then cleaned it thoroughly and put some normal lube in. 

In any case, maybe that would resolve this engine's gear noise -


And John is a good guy, I made sure to buy a couple things from him at Springfield MA -

[bigblock454]

Wow... Most interested to hear more about this method! Sound like it would loosen up a "too tight" fitting gear mesh... neat!!

Norm

[railtwister]

Using abrasive creams for breaking in gears works by accelerating the wear on the mating surfaces of the gear, so if the gears don't mesh properly at first, you'll end up wearing the gears out. You should get the mesh adjusted as perfectly as possible before using any break-in cream, so that all you are doing with the cream is a light polishing of the surfaces. You will also have to clean all the abrasive out of the loco once the "break-in" operation is finished, and this is hard to do on plastic gear because the abrasive particles can become embedded in the soft plastic. When I used to race slot cars, the break-in cream method worked OK with steel pinions working brass or aluminum spur gears, but not worth a hoot with brass or steel pinions against nylon (or other plastic) spur gears. My advice would be not to do this except as a very last resort.

Also remember that adding a new decoder or sound board will not fix mechanical problems that cause an engine to run poorly in the first place. If you want to modify or super detail a loco, make sure you make it run as perfectly as you can before investing a lot of time in cosmetics...

Bill