Hello al I have returned,I have 2 GP40-2's one is a sp Speed Letting one.With a great frame,Other is a black frame the SP grey frame runs faster then the.Black frame GP40-2 why would the greay frame run faster the the? Black frame I cleaned the motor on the black frame one.Put it back together still same isuues so What can I do to make it run faster?
I don't think frame color has anything to do with performance problems.
Are these the newest RTR releases from Dec. 2019? Sound and DCC?
How did you "clean the motor" ?
Not all locomotives from the same manufacturer will run perfectly together.
I guess more details are needed.
Mike.
My You Tube
There the blue box ones to clean the motor.I took a pencil eraser cleaned the round copper part. I have DC not DCC still runs slow liek it not getting.Enough power from somewhere.
Are all the electrical contacts and pickups clean and getting good contact? Another thought would be to disconnect the driveshafts and worm gears from the power trucks and try pushing them on a straight, level piece of track. They should roll smooth. If you notice some stiffness when rolling them, they probably have some old gummed up grease that needs to be cleaned out. I actually did this procedure myself on an old blue box DDA40X about a year ago. It realy made a difference. Hope this helps.
Edit: I found a YouTube video that shows you how to service Athearn locos that might be helpful. Here's the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhPY7A9vogw
OK, BB locos. Another thing to check is where the frame sits on the trucks. There is a little pin on the frame that goes into a hole on the top of the truck. Both surfaces must be clean.
The frame is the (-) negative side of the electrical supply.
The (+) positive side is the metal strip that goes across the top of the motor, and makes contact to the metal "L" shaped peice coming up from the engineers side of the truck.
Any place that strip makes contact with the top of motor and trucks, needs to be clean.
The wheels need to be clean, and where the truck frame sits on the axles needs to be clean.
Not all Athearn BB locos run at the same speed.
Check out this link. It's a great tutorial on servicing and up-grading an Athearn BB loco.
http://www.mcor-nmra.org/Publications/Articles/Athearn_TuneUp.php
One runs little bit faster he grey one runs lot faster then the black one.
Athearn has had problems with the blue box motors in that the end caps were not seated square on the can portion of the motor causing the motor to bind which would cause it to run slower than a similar motor.
Rick Jesionowski
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dti406Athearn has had problems with the blue box motors in that the end caps were not seated square on the can portion of the motor causing the motor to bind which would cause it to run slower than a similar motor.
I have a BB SD45 that has been a constant slow runner, and draws more amps than the others.
I'll have to check that out.
Thanks Rick.
Sounds like you have two "Blue Box" GP40s. There are number of things you can do to improve blue box running.
1. Hard wire the power pickup. The sliding stainless steel wiper arrangement is not all that dependable. Solder a couple of wires to the top strap (do this with the top strap off the locomotive). Buy some "1/4 inch Fastons" from your friendly local hardware store. These will slip over the straps coming up from the trucks. Crimp the fastons to the wires.
2. Check the motor. Clean the motor commutator (the round rotating copper dingus) with Goo-Gone on a Q-tip. Never oil a commutator. Give each motor bearing one (just one) drop of light oil. 3-in-1 works for me. Check that the motor mounts flat fore and aft. If it is tipped up one way or another it will cause drag.
3. Clean the insides of the gear towers. They come from the factory packed with grease, which hardens over the years and stops lubricating and starts dragging. Pop the retaining clip off the bottom of the truck and it will come apart. Use solvent to get all othe old grease out. With a pipe cleaner wipe each tooth of each gear to pick up any loose plastic flash that may be stuck to the gears. Give the gears a touch of light grease. I use white molly grease from the auto parts store. The gears are slippery engineering plastic which doesn't need much lube so go easy.
4. Check wheel gauge on each wheel set. Give each wheel bearing one drop of light oil.
5. Check the U-joints in the drive shafts. They ought to be running at a very small angle, nearly straight. If not, recheck the motor mounting.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Do you have some photos on how to do this?
Check out the link I have in my 2nd. reply to you. It's all in there, with words and pictures.
Thanks for all the help & replies my GP40-2 is running great,I had to clean the gears an,I had put in 3 in oil engine great Thanks Again Cheers.