Noisy F7

[davemoore]

F7 originally from set acquired last winter has become exceedingly noisy when moving forward; in reverse, it's whisper quiet, like new. I've cleaned it and can't see anything obvious in the drive mechanism that would explain the noise in one direction of travel only. Has anyone else experienced this, or have a clue as to what is occurring?   The loco still pulls very well, though it seems to take about 10% more voltage now. 

[fieromike]

Can you describe the noise; click, clank, growl, screech....?

[taz-of-boyds]

Could there be a problem with the motor brushes or the power pickups that contact the wheels?  Would some cleaning and tiniest lubrication for the pickups help?
Charles

[davemoore]

Can you describe the noise; click, clank, growl, screech....?

Loud clicks.

[fieromike]

It might  well be a cracked plastic gear in one of the trucks, and, yes they can make noise in one direction.  I have one myself.  You might talk to service about sending yours back for repair.

Mike

[brokemoto]

Is it a SPECTRUM or a PLUS?  The PLUS F-units are out of production, but there are still many out there that vendors have as NOS.  The PLUS have had the gear-cracking problem that another poster mentioned; I have not heard too many such complaints about the SPECTRUM.  If you sent back the PLUS under warranty, B-mann has replaced it with the SPECTRUM in the past, but I do not know what they do currently.

I have one A-B set of SPECTRUM F units and several PLUS.  All are noisy in both directions, as are the E-R sharks (which have a similar power chassis and were manufactured in the same factory in China).  The sharks do operate better than do the F-units.

[davemoore]

Is it a SPECTRUM or a PLUS?  It's not a Spectrum -- I sent it off to Bachmann this morning.

[taz-of-boyds]

I discovered another symptom; the gears jam.  I just got three Bachmann streetcars in the hard plastic box.  Two were jamming after short travel in one direction or the other.  After fiddling with it, and taking one apart, and cleaning some of the excess grease, and studying it very closely, and isolating it on one axle; ta-da the gear on the axle had a tiny tiny crack.  It would not hold the wheels very well, and the jamming was because the crack let the gears spread just enough for the next tooth on the center gear to jam against it across the gap.

I have two new trucks on the way (I hope) from Bachmann.  For now, I switched the two cracked gears to the same streetcar, and the other works just fine now.

Happy debugging,
Charles

[Batman]

I have 9 f-7s and all of them after ten minutes of running started to clank and trucks hopping. They all had a tiny crack on the axle gear, I would hope someone would come out with a good replacement axle set for my six A and 3 B units.

[GlennW]

Another idea would be to swap the motors for LLGP20's. At least the LL don't have the cracking problem. One trick is to find a cheap supply of them.

[taz-of-boyds]

Maybe you could contact:

http://www.nwsl.com/

If there is enough business maybe they would make a replacement gear, if they don't have something that might work.

Charles

[taz-of-boyds]

Well, I should check before I type!  The price might not be to your liking, but this might be suitable:

2574-6  24.95  'N' 40"/72 (4) Bachmann Plus F-7 diesel 12T x .165" geared NS whlsets

Check out the web site for sure, here is a brochure discussing these replacement wheel sets:

http://www.nwsl.com/Brochure%20Pages/broch%2025746%20Wheelsets.htm

The price seems to get you four new gears with better looking wheel-sets.  And the wheels do look a lot better, at least up close.

Charles