happy new year all nscalers! in regards to kato sw1 switcher; suddenly the wheels started to 'slip'. I have cleaned the track, electrical contacts and wheels and rebooted the decoder! what am I missing?? dr.phil in the desert.
Interesting. Could you please add some detail about the slipping? What, when ,any load.....Slipping for me usually means a grade or curve increasing the load on the engine.
With no change from previous running or consists it was pulling suggest that maybe something is dragging. Fuel tank, truck side frames askew, pilot at either end, all can be suspects. That and besides a slippery track or wheels from lube.
I wasn't aware they made an SW1? Can you physically see the wheels spinning? All axles are freely turning? No odd noises?
The only SW-I that is currently out there is some HO models and there are some custom built ones and shells for one out there in N. If it just happens to be the older S-2 by Arnold then it probably has cracked gears and is only allowing one truck to be powered if not both. There is a SW-2 model out there though so we do need to correctly ID the loco and it's age to really dig into this.
That's amongst the things I am thinking. I know some folks have experienced drive train issues with the (N) Kato NW2.
If there is the blackening they use for the wheels sides on the wheel tread...get it off there. Get the wheel tread down to metal. That blackening ^%$$^%$$ WILL make wheels slip. I know a FVM will slip with that &^%&%(&% on the tread. ;-)
The otherwise wonderful Kato NW2 has a design flaw. The white "transmission gear" that is part of the motor assembly slips on its axle. I submitted an article to N-Scale Mag on this subject, but they have not done anything with it yet.
1) Let's positively identify what you've got, that's part of the problem: http://www.spookshow.net/katonw2.html It's irrelevant whether it is or isn't one of my SW1 conversions as the mechanism is identical other than some removal of frame material to fit the shell. 2) Get down to 'rail level' with the shell off, and see if you can really see if the wheels are turning when it slips (just let it push into your finger) or if the wheels are stopping with the motor still running (I'll guess the latter). There's no traction tires on this, so the wheels should spin on the rails in direct proportion to motor speed. 3) I'll guess that it's the white gear on the driveline shaft slipping and concur with Dr. Bearden. While Kato sells the motor, they don't sell the gear separately or the 'transmission'. I'm not sure if it actually splits or expands or both. Might be one or both of the universals to the trucks as well but I've never heard that one. I've had dozens of these things come through for conversion and I haven't seen one do this but I very much believe it. If it's just slipping... Loctite? Paging Dr. Bearden? The only really tricky part of mechanism disassembly is loosening the horseshoe-shaped brass motor brush contacts off the electrical board with tweezers before you pull the frame halves apart so you don't have them either get damaged or flying across the room. Other than that, very straightforward disassembly, it's held together by the motor frame, no real magic, just a different drive system. I'm not aware of any other locomotive in N that has that same drive arrangement with that same gear assembly. It's rather unique. Here's the inside: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/500/KatoNW2_chassis.jpeg You can see there are two 'white gears', the one that is the most suspect is the one on the bottom shaft. If that is slipping, all 8 wheels will be slipping in unison while the motor is still turning.
I agree with Randgust that we do need to positively ID the mechanism to get a diagnosis and the age of the mechanism would also be nice. Also one other thing that had slipped my mind in my earlier posts. If this loco has the type of trucks where the gear or gears can been seen through small slots in the bottom of the truck it is possible for a small piece of almost anything hard to get caught up in the gears and cause one truck to seize up. Usually the motor is locked up also, but if it has enough torque it could just have that shaft spinning in the motor shaft coupling or universals for that end.
kato yard switcher in Nscale=NW-2 the 'slipping' occurs with no load on straight track in the yard. I thing a better choice of terms would be poor traction capability. thanks for your help.
sorry for confusion; I did this from work. we are talking about kato nscale yard switcher NW2 and it is less then a year old. the change in traction ( a better description then using ' slippage' ) occurred suddenly in the yard with no load and is accompanied by an annoying 'whine' sound. if this is a drive train issue will kato accept it for repair? thanks, phil in LaQuinta,Ca.
This sounds like a gear train failure. By that I mean something is broken. I believe the next step is a careful visual inspection, including shell removal.
With less than a year of service I see no reason that Kato would not accept this for repair. It should be under some warranty. Sounds like the issue that was described in Randgust's post #11 with the slipping white gear.
thank you all-much appreciate your help; if it does look like a drive train issue then I will send it back to kato; will let you know the results! phil in SoCal.
With the shell off hold the loco down while you apply some power and watch. If something is slipping or broken you should be able to see the defective part.
