Athearn gears

[Anonymous]

Hello
I'm trying to quiet down the gears on my Athearn loco's and I've got some plastic friendly grease with PTFE's in it and was wondering if this will be sufficient or is light oil preferable?

[Anonymous]

There are about three or four web sites that have excellent Athearn tuning advice. Google on Athearn Tune and it should turn up a couple. Most common is tear down, clean with soap and water, reassemble, lube with Pearl-drops, run one way for 30 minutes, run reverse for 30 minutes, tear down, clean, reassemble and then lube with plastic compatible lubricant. Do look for these web sites as there is plenty of other good Athearn tuneup information.

[BRAKIE]

Be careful about using grease on Athearn gears and drive shifts.Use sparling..
I use one small drop of light oil on my gears and drive shafts and work it in place by turning the drive with the flywheel..
Also be careful of what you read concerning Athearn tune ups..Some go to the extreme while in fact its not necessity.

If you like I can send you a copy by e-mail of the way I tune up my Athearn's..

[Anonymous]

Does the advice offered here apply to "Athern clone" mechanisms, i.e. a Stewart RS3? That loco I have doesn't have enough speed to get out of its own way.

[Anonymous]

Does it apply to clones? Yup. But Stewart usually run pretty well right out of the box. See if you can isolate the problem to a bind or not enough juice to the motor due to poor contact. So first things first are clean the wheels. Second would be to seperate the drive from the motor to the trucks and see if the trucks turn without binding.

[AntonioFP45]

Also,

Learned from a friend of mine that with many Athearns, the body can also contribute to noise as it may vibrate due to the motor and truck gears resonating. Suggested applying strip caulk or weather strip tape to the inside of the shell.

10-4!