Was running my Challenger during the Denver GTE this past weekend. Ran great for a little while. Until it has stopped on a switch. Lead driver, of the front driver set locked up! Tighter than a drum!! Will NOT move at all. Everything else is loose, and has some play. Everything except lead driver. Has anyone else had a problem like this? What am I best off doing now: 1. Locating exploded diagram and doing repair(s) myself? 2. Locate box, pack and ship back to Athearn for repair? Gotta get a replacement number board anyway! Any information is much appreciated! Thanks.
I had an issue with a Big Boy doing something similar. I removed the bottom cover, looked at everything, put a dab of oil here and there, couldn't see anything wrong with it. I put the cover back on and put it back on the layout. It has worked like a charm ever since. My guess is there was a piece of flash or dirt that fell into the mechanism, and fell out when I opened it up. I'd try looking at it before shipping it off.
Well to me it depends on how long have you had it? I don't remember, how long Athearn's warranty is for? I'm the type of modeler that would take a quick look and see if it is just something jammed in the drive line. That's what it sounds like to me.
Something like that I'd try to look at myself first. If not, Athearn's warranty is only for one year (I think). However, they did do some no cost to me work on my challenger well after it was a year old when one of the crank pins kept falling out of the wheel.
Tried to check, during show. Could not figure out how to remove bottom plate, without destroying rest of locomotive! Will check again and see what I can find. I've had unit since it was released. Have run it some before, but have never had problems until now. Good running unit. Oh well..... Diesels ran better anyway!
I had one also do this, and when I removed the plate on the bottom of the driver set, I found one of the bearings had poped out of it's mount. lifted driver a bit and bearing slipped back in, replaced cover, and have never had another issue with it.
Are there more than 2 screws, and end clips holding bottom plate in position? I removed the 2 screws, and unclipped plate from both ends and still could NOT get plate off, without possibly breaking something. Might check mine tonight, since I'm taking night off due to foot bothering me more than necessary.
Well, I got front driver assembly apart, with no damage. After inspection, the idler gear connected to driver is jammed. So, it appears my problem is deeper in the driveline. I can attempt to disassemble farther, or save myself the headache, and contact Athearn and ship my unit back and have them make repairs necessary. I don't really care to mess with it any farther, and really screw things up! I'll let the experts do that for me!
The only problem that I had was that the decoder flipped out on DC and now only runs backwards. Works fine in DCC mode though. Hmmmmm..that's one to make you scratch your head over.
Looks like I gotta order a set of new gears. Those in the gear tower. And maybe do a slight rebend of running gear. One thing for sure, there's WAY too much lube in the gear tower! Now, I need to find the part numbers and price for what I need and place an order.
Appreciate the exploded diagrams! Since mine are in the box, and unlocatable at the moment! Just contacted Athearn, with latest information about locked up drivers. Also indicated which parts I think I'm gonna need, to get my Challenger back in action. Will see what they have to say next. Have 2 weeks to work on it also, since I'm now on a 2 week LOA from work, due to problems with foot. Anyway, Thanks again for the info.
Option 2. Send it back, wait for the repair to be done. This way you have NO worries. If you try to fix it, your probably going to end up sending it back anyways. So, return, wait, relax, receive, run. It is as simple as that. Call Chuck at Athearn 310-763 7140, tell him its on its way. Make sure you Insure it so they sign for it. Give it about 3 weeks and your back in business. fatalxsunrider43
Needed parts are being sent out by Athearn soon. They offered to have me ship locomotive back so they could look at and repair as necessary. Politley declined, since I already had unit apart, and since it would take a while to locate original box, ordering parts was fastest and easiest! For me anyway.
