Has anyone else had an issue with this? I haven't seen any threads. Any suggestions besides sending them in or asking for a new pair?
It runs really jerky, especially at low speeds. I tried loosening the frame, and it helped a little bit, but it still did it. I took the trucks off and when I roll them back and forth they hella bind. I noticed if I roll them and put pressure on them from the side, they bind less when the pressure is on the same side as the gear is on the axles, but still a little bit. I've looked it over a hundred times and I don't see anything in the gears and I can't see where any teeth might be grabbing. I also ran it without the trucks installed, and it ran perfect, so it's not in the motor/flywheel/worm part.
I don't know how Athearn trucks are constructed but if they're anything like Atlas or Kato have you checked to see that the truck body is snapped on corrrectly to the truck frame? I've had that be the cause of gear binding before. Or maybe one (or both) contact strips may not be seated in the truck body correctly and thereby causing an axle to bind. Just thinking out loud. Brian
Depends on how old this model is and if this is the first time you've run it. But the original runs of them had very poor quality on the gears and caused a lot of binding. The way to fix it was to use some abrasive tooth past or a fine abrasive liquid used in machining. You take the truck out of the engine apply which ever abrasive you are using and run the truck back and form letting the abrasive work the gears into each other. Then totally disassemble the truck, clean everything to get all the abrasive out rebuild the truck and see how smooth it runs. I could get mine to the point where at about a 1% grade the truck would roll on it's own. There should be a thread on it, and N-scale had an article on it a couple of years ago.
I believe they all have 5 pole motors just different can styles. What is the actual model number from Athearn.
It's the 10713. I did the toothpaste and it seemed to help the trucks out a lot, but then when I installed them, it now seems to be having binding issues where the worm gear engages, but it only really happens if the locomotive is right side up and on the track. If I turn it upside down I can run it as low as 6/128. With only one truck installed it'll run smoothly upside down at 1/128. Rightside up on the track, I have to be at least at 40/128 for it to run close to smoothly, and it makes a racket which seems to mostly come from whichever truck is leading. So if I'm going forwards, the front truck makes the noise and binds, and if I'm going in reverse, the rear truck does it. Edit: I just it right side up without being on the track, and it will run forward fine at low speeds, but not in reverse. I'm thinking maybe I should just toothpaste the trucks again and then install them and run it at a high speed for a while.
What tooth paste are you using. I looked up what I had used and what was used in the article and it was pearl drops. Standard tooth paste probably isn't gritty enough to do the job.
Yes, Topol or Pearl Drops is what has been suggested. I used valve lapping compund on some HO Athearns with good results, but I can't recommend something that coarse for N.
Yeah, it's just some colgate crap. It made a slight difference in the trucks, but they could be better. My concern then is that even if I use the grittier stuff, it still won't smooth out the gear that engages with the worm gear unless I toothpaste the whole deal and run it with the toothpaste in it for a while.
The worm gear will quickly wear in the top gear but the biggest problem are the rest of the gears. Once you use the pearl drops and clean everything up you'll be a lot better off.
