Help!! clicking motor

[cudaken]

Ken: the only products that have had cracked gears were the early 5 or 6 locos from Lifelike. and maybe some older brass models. Cracked gears are not really a common problem except for the aforementioned early production LifeLike P2Ks, (unfortunately LL made a lot of them).

Wrong guess......Athearn steamers, Bachmann Diesels in HO and N scale and other products suffer from cracked gears, not just LL.

For the OP, I would suspect a driveline issue (univeral joint or the like).  I would make sure everything is seated properly.

David B

 Lets not for get cracked gears in BLI engines, I have replaced two in there steam engines.

[Trax21]

Ok everyone seems to be pointing you towards gear problems. And not being at all fimilar with HO scale. I had a very simaler problem with an n scale loco I bought recently I started at the wheels and worked my way up to find the problem was actaully the motor had shifted just ever so slightly and was actually rubbing the body. A little sanding on the insdie of the body where the rub marks were fixed it instantly. That being said I do not know if that could be a potential problem on a HO scale loco

[nof]

It don't need to be a cracked gear, just some scrap in the gear. I had a small copper scrap on one of the cogwheels in a truck and it was a lot of noise. The scrap was so small so I hardly could see it. First take the trucks of the loco and run them on the track to find out which one is noisy, then inspect it very thorough.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Thanks David. You beat me to it. I've had three HO Athearn's with cracked gears over the years. Two were geeps and one was an F unit.

[modelmaker51]

Wrong guess, in twenty years of dealing with a lot of Atlas engines, I've never found one with cracked gears. It is likely something has come unsnapped in the driveline or a wire is brushing up against something.

Ken: the only products that have had cracked gears were the early 5 or 6 locos from Lifelike. and maybe some older brass models. Cracked gears are not really a common problem except for the aforementioned early production LifeLike P2Ks, (unfortunately LL made a lot of them).

And DeadheadGreg: DO NOT use that old oil ever! Get to a hobby shop and get some modern plastic compatable oil and grease.

[cudaken]

 I am going to guess ypu have cracked center gears in the trucks. Taking trucks apart is nornaly not hard. I you want to try it, someone here will be happy to talk you throught it. If you take it to your LHS see if they will show you how to do it.

 I have yet to have a Atlas engine, but I have done many of Proto's and Athearn truck repairs. Onces you get past the fear factor, they are pretty simple.

 

              Cuda Ken

 

 

[modelmaker51]

Generally, Atlas drives are pretty bullet proof and the fixes usually simple. These are some quick visual checks you can do if you have the shell off:

Checkthe truck hold-down clips that they are secure, look around the motor, flywheel and drive/universal shaft for any wire(s) that could be touching. Also check that the universal shafts are snapped into the sockets on the trucks, (the other end of the shaft slides freely in the flywheel).

If you haven't now found the problem, the next step would be to take it to someone more knowledgable.

[selector]

If something is making contact with the tie tops, the clicking will increase in frequency as speed increases since the frequency of tie passage with increase commensurately.....yes?  It happens, for example, that something as simple as the nadir of the trip pin curve makes contact with the tops of the ties.

I agree that you might be further ahead to have someone experienced take a closer look.

[DeadheadGreg]

Nothing is catching the ties, and it increases with speed.  I was thinking of just taking it to a shop to have them look at it; I've never taken an engine's trucks apart and I really don't want to risk screwing something up. 

[selector]

Could be the gears...one of them might have broken off some flashing.  It isn't a very quick click, I take it, so it will be a final drive gear that doesn't rotate faster than any of the axles...at least that is my assumption?

It could also be something as simple as a conduit or piping, some plastic object that has become bent or misplaced/misaligned and it is coming into contact with ties or something else.

Visual inspection, and that probably means taking the trucks apart and cleaning to see if there is a tiny bit of plastic that needs to be scrubbed or nipped away.

[DeadheadGreg]

So I have an Atlas HO GP40, and it was fine when I first got it off ebay a few months ago.  Last time I took it out, though, the engine made this crazy clicking noise when I ran it, even with the shell off.  I pace it slow and put my nose right up to it, but I can't see anything.  Nothing is dragging against the ties, and the gears don't jerk or do anything visibly erroneous. 

Do I just need to lube it?  I have some old oil I used on my old Lionel trains when I was a kid; would this work?  Where should I put it?  Any help is greatly appreciated.