Blown Speaker or Uncontrollable Rattle?

[Rickenbacker 325]

Hi all,

I just got a few new engines lately and one in particular is a brand new Lackawanna heritage unit. The issue I have is that when the sound is on, it sounds scratchy making me think of a blown speaker. However, When I hold the shell down, it goes away. I have tightened every screw holding the shell on and holding the speaker in place. Is there an easy fix for this instead of sending it in? I am thinking about putting foam or something inside to try and reduce the vibration. Open to other ideas.

Thanks!

[Gearedenginefreak]

I built an enclosure for a speaker install I was doing on one of my diesels. Sounded horrible buzz like a blown speaker. But it was the enclosure vibrating against something else in the shell.  I took it out and either trimmed it down or placed foam tape between it and the shell contact point - I don't remember exactly now. Anyway, the buzz went away and the sound is awesome now.

[Len]

A wire caught under the edge of the shell on one side or the other can lift it just enough to cause vibrations. It may not be very noticable, so look carefully for a gap. Another possibility is a slightly warped shell creating a gap. A bit of adhesive tape built up to fill the gap, and colored to match the locos deck, will usually take care of that.

Len

[Rickenbacker 325]

I will try both those suggestions. I did have it apart to replace the couplers with Kadee's and I didn't notice any wires popping out. I will check again!

[rich1998]

Hi all,

I just got a few new engines lately and one in particular is a brand new Lackawanna heritage unit. The issue I have is that when the sound is on, it sounds scratchy making me think of a blown speaker. However, When I hold the shell down, it goes away. I have tightened every screw holding the shell on and holding the speaker in place. Is there an easy fix for this instead of sending it in? I am thinking about putting foam or something inside to try and reduce the vibration. Open to other ideas.

Thanks!

Did you install it with a speaker gasket? Usually I did with a couple diesels.

Rich

[Trainman203]

Every steam engine with sound I own had the tender shell rattling.  Sometimes just turning the sound down fixed it.  But usually had to line wherever the shell touched the underframe with very thin strips of drafting tape , wherever plastic touched plastic .  On a couple of cases, the coal load was rattling.  Had to insert a thin styrene shim to make the contact tight and positive,

[rich1998]

Good troubleshooting.

Rich

[Rickenbacker 325]

I didnt install it, it was factory from Bachmann. The sound is already so quiet that I can hardly hear it over my other engines. I tried stuffing it with light foam around the fuel tank but it still does it. I might just send it back and see if Bachmann can fix it.

[Trainman203]

Several of Bachmann's steam engines with small tenders have very quiet sound systems that can't be turned up a whole lot.  The small tender size is a small chamber, your diesel may be similar .  In this environment, you turn master volume cv 128 up to 255.  In this case it may never get that loud.  I think the volumes were kept low to avoid blowing speakers with resulting warranty returns.  The new Econamis and Tsunami2s have much better whistle volumes.  You really have to turn them down to avoid distortion and rattling.

Then you set the horn volume cv 129 as high as it can go without distorting the sound.  You may need to go inside and isolate all shell contact with the frame as I described earlier.  Then you set the other volumes appropriately.  I don't know diesel sounds very well but for certain, the horn should drown out the bell which is usually too loud to begin with anyway.  I think you can fix this issue yourself, try and then report back.

[rich1998]

Hi all,

I just got a few new engines lately and one in particular is a brand new Lackawanna heritage unit. The issue I have is that when the sound is on, it sounds scratchy making me think of a blown speaker. However, When I hold the shell down, it goes away. I have tightened every screw holding the shell on and holding the speaker in place. Is there an easy fix for this instead of sending it in? I am thinking about putting foam or something inside to try and reduce the vibration. Open to other ideas.

Thanks!

Sounds like the shell is used as a baffle. Is the speaker actually in a baffle? All my diesels have a baffle for the speaker.
Usually a blown speaker would have no output. I have done audio work for years.
I tried looking up Lackawanna heritage unit in the diagrams page but no luck to see what the speaker set up is like. I used, find in the page option.
I suspect it is in the fuel tank.

Rich

[Rickenbacker 325]

Hi all,

I just got a few new engines lately and one in particular is a brand new Lackawanna heritage unit. The issue I have is that when the sound is on, it sounds scratchy making me think of a blown speaker. However, When I hold the shell down, it goes away. I have tightened every screw holding the shell on and holding the speaker in place. Is there an easy fix for this instead of sending it in? I am thinking about putting foam or something inside to try and reduce the vibration. Open to other ideas.

Thanks!

Sounds like the shell is used as a baffle. Is the speaker actually in a baffle? All my diesels have a baffle for the speaker.
Usually a blown speaker would have no output. I have done audio work for years.
I tried looking up Lackawanna heritage unit in the diagrams page but no luck to see what the speaker set up is like. I used, find in the page option.
I suspect it is in the fuel tank.

Rich

The speaker is located in the fuel tank. I dont want to take it apart anymore than I already have. I might just get a new speaker and see if that fixes it or not. If not, then I might try to fill the fuel tank or move the speaker location.