Athearn power pickup problem

[Omaha53]

I have an Athearn RTR GP38-2 and a Genesis SD60 that both seem to have the same problem. They both seem to have a sporadic electrical continuity problem between the wheels and the point where the wiring is attached to the truck.

Both locomotives have square bearings on the axles that fit in a square notch in the steel sides of the truck. On one side the steel side carrys the current to the locomotive frame. On the other side the steel side has a rivet that carries the current to a flat copper strip that is solder to a wire that carries the current to the decoder. Some of the rivets have seemed to be loose so I have tried to tighten them up. But the issue is not solved. This design seems to have several places that the circuit could be broken: axle to bearing, bearing to steel side. steel side to loco frame or to rivet, rivet to copper strip.

One solution that I have though of is to add some phospher bronze wipers to the back of the wheels. Has anyone tried this?

Has anybody encountered this problem? How did you solve it?

[rrinker]

 I have 2 Athearn RTR locos and I am 50/50 - one worked fine out of the box, the other needs help for the same problem. On the problem loco I even soldred a wire from the metal truck sideframe to the power pickup point that just grabs power fromt he loco frame. Even that didn;t solve the problem. It appears that what happens is the plastic part of the truck gearbox extends down far enough to keep those square bushings from touching the metal of the truck frame - thus no power. The solution is probably going to involve removing and disassmbling the truck (keep track of where the gears go) and foling away a little of the palstic so the bearings ride on the metal, not plastic. Don;t want any shavings or chips to get in the gears, hence the complete disassembly and then washing it all out good before reassembly. Don;t forget to grease them. The alternative to that would be to use some fine flexible wire and actually solder to each of the bronze bushings. The dnager here is getting too big  blob of solder on the bushing so it can;t move up and down in the slot. However, you don;t have to completely tear down the loco to do it this way. Either way will give much more reliable electrical pickup. Probably easier than finding a way to mount wipers for the wheels, though that too would work.

            --Randy

[gmpullman]

Ditto to everything Randy says! I recently went on a buying spree and picked up 10 Genesis F-7s. About three out of the bunch had terrible pickup problems. It took me a while to track down the problem, even doing what Randy said by soldering leads directly to the bronze bearing strip (eliminating the plastic clip) what helped for me was to wash out all the grease using contact cleaner. Eventually, by running the engines along with others, the pickup improved a bit but didn't completely go away. Maybe some conductive grease would help but I'm not familiar with this.

I'll have to look at shaving away some plastic as Randy suggests. At first I thought I had a defective Loksound decoder but I swapped out decoders and still had the problem. Pretty disappointing for a $150.00 engine! Yet, the other seven and some previously acquired ones run flawlessly!

Let us know what you find... Ed

[rrinker]

 Luckily mine were just RTR and not the expensive Genesis. ANd I got deals on them. The one that didn;t run was the one I really wanted, factory painted Reading. I found another one, L&N I think, on ebay  for $29 expecting to use it for parts, but that oen ran fine right out of the box, so I just swapped shells and put the bad chassis away to work on later. I will eventually do the full fixes and if it runs properly after that, I will strip and repaint the shell, one can never have too many RS-3's! I also have 4 undecorated Atlas/Kato ones and they take higher priority than fixing the Atherarn, because they all run great.

            --Randy

 

[wp8thsub]

gmpullman

I recently went on a buying spree and picked up 10 Genesis F-7s. About three out of the bunch had terrible pickup problems.

One of the common problems with Genesis wheelsets is poor contact between the axles and the bearing strips due to how the axles are formed.  Replacement wheelsets from Northwest Short Line address the issue and make better contact.  Before hacking up your locomotives try NWSL wheels. 

With the Athearn RTR line, sometimes the metal plate inside the sideframes has excess chemical blackener or paint that prevents the axle bearings from making contact.  Take the wheelsets out and see if the bearing surfaces are shiny metal or dull black.  You may also see black residue on the bronze axle bearings.  Carefully scrape the axle slots down to bare metal and clean tne bearings.  Removing plastic from around the axle bearings can cause them to slip sideways out of the slot on the truck.

[Mark R.]

One problem I found with the Athearn RTR engines was that they now paint the truck sides black and the paint gets in the slots the bronze bushings ride in. I use an x-acto knife to scrape the three sides of the square slot clean. That alone usually cures most of the problem. Also clean ANY factory lubricant from the bronze journals as that will act as an insulator. I've also found oily residue on the king-pin surface as well which will also act as another sporadic insulator.

The design really isn't all that bad if all the surfaces are clean and dry.

The Genesis trucks are a completely different design and have a known contact flaw. The solution for those can be found here ....

Genesis Pick-up Problems

The link suggests using new wheel / axle sets from NWSL, but I've had the same results by just carefully tapping the axle out further on the Athearn wheel (use a micrometer to check your progress) and using an NMRA guage when re-inserting the axle / wheel back into the gear.

Mark.

[zstripe]

Omaha53,

Read through this site, for some tips:

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/16295

Frank