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After recently purchasing a Kato SD70MAC, I found (as did MR magazine) that the starting speed was slightly higher than I would expect from a Kato locomotive. I must have lucked out and ended up with a worse case unit, because I could hear a vocal squeak coming from both trucks. After changing the worm gears from another unit, removing flash from the drive shafts, and just about every other thing I could think of, it still made the squeaking! The friction even stopped the motor from turning a few times at slow speeds. Every time I would replace the worm gear cover on the truck, it would make the noise. <br /> <br />BINGO! Something was wrong with the covers. But, what? Looking on the inside of one cover, a rub was found on one of the angled blocks on the underside. That meant that the worm gear was rubbing the cover. After inspecting the locking pins and square holes where the pins snap in, I found flash on the underside of the holes. This was causing the cover to be pulled down over the worm gear more than was intended. After removing this flash from both covers(front and rear), no noise or friction was detected, and the unit's starting speed dropped considerably. Now my SD80MAC has a running mate! [8D]
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