That's all very informative, Chris thanks for your insights. I forgot to mention that mine starts the lights flashing and then cuts out after maybe 20mins. I always took that to be something to do with the effort to turn the motor causing overheating but you seem to have a better handle on it than I do.
Agree time to ditch the dcs board. I'm on DC so pondering which way to go.
I still believe it's a model worth persevering with.
interesting to hear your issue and solution Thomas, thanks.
cscannon222 I was able to remove the shell and found out what is making the gear/grinding noise. The drive shaft for the rear engine is at a sharp angle and the gear box had a lot of front to back play. It was about three times as much movement as the front engine. Therefore when power was applied the box moved increasing the angle on the driveshaft causing it to bind. After disassembly of the rear engine gear box I saw the mounting tab on the back was bent. I straightened it out and this reduced the movement to equal the front engine. Unfortunately the driveshaft is still at a steep angle however this eliminated 95% of the gear noise. The rattlimg sound is still present. The driveshaft for the front engine is almost completely straight. I will work on this some more to see if I can reduce the angle on the rear engine. Chris
I was able to remove the shell and found out what is making the gear/grinding noise. The drive shaft for the rear engine is at a sharp angle and the gear box had a lot of front to back play. It was about three times as much movement as the front engine.
Therefore when power was applied the box moved increasing the angle on the driveshaft causing it to bind.
After disassembly of the rear engine gear box I saw the mounting tab on the back was bent. I straightened it out and this reduced the movement to equal the front engine. Unfortunately the driveshaft is still at a steep angle however this eliminated 95% of the gear noise. The rattlimg sound is still present.
The driveshaft for the front engine is almost completely straight. I will work on this some more to see if I can reduce the angle on the rear engine.
Chris
this was the problem with 2010 MTH big boy it was so bad that it broke the dog bones so i had to make metal ones to correct it
Another update:
I checked the motor mount bracket and it was slightly bent also. I straightened it out and now the front and rear driveshafts look identical and have almost no angle. The gear/driveshaft noise is gone, but the motor rattle is not.
It runs fairly quiet forward, but the motor is loud in reverse. Once I put a 20 car train on it the motor gets louder. Anything over speed step 20 of 99 on my digitrax throttle the sound starts cutting out and the motor stops then starts repidly. If I turn the smoke unit off I can get to speed setup 35 before this starts.
I believe the motor/chuff sensor is faulty and causing the dcs/dcc electronics to overload or go haywire.
My next steps is to find a new/different motor and swap out the MTH electronics with either ESU or TCS wow sound.
In the mean time I am going to run it on speed step 20 with smoke and see how long it last. This is about the speed I like to run my coal drags anyhow.
I'll have a look at that bracket, thanks for the tip! I would say when new it was an eerily quiet runner and when I had the thing on the rollers to diagnose the noise last weekend it's definately the motor in my case but it's intermittent.
The pilot platform I got into a better position by heating the front beneath it with a hairdryer - but mind how you go - and just applied gentle bending of the platform while holding it between my thumb and forefinger. I have done this to a few things with success but years ago I slightly deformed a Walthers steramlined car because of the heat so really be careful.
TheFlyingScotsman Ironically it comes, correctly, with spoked wheels on the trailing truck which my Sunset AC-9 didn't for $2,000, although I've now addressed that at least for display purposes. Don't mean to hijack your thread Chris. Sorry
Ironically it comes, correctly, with spoked wheels on the trailing truck which my Sunset AC-9 didn't for $2,000, although I've now addressed that at least for display purposes.
Don't mean to hijack your thread Chris. Sorry
No worries on hijacking thread. Your information and insight is valuable and much appreciated.
If you don't mind me asking, how did you fix the front pilot slope?
Thanks again
There was a fair bit of negativity about this model around these parts when MTH brought them out and I totally accept that the under-cab area was missed out and where they were coming from with the tender steps is anybody's guess but I'll fix both of those and attach the trailing truck more effectively but look at that and if you still think it's a bad deal at $399 from Trainworld then you weren't trying to model steam 25 or 30 years ago. I think it's a great model in very many respects. Oh BTW i fixed the sloping pilot platform with a hairdryer
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I haven't yet, Chris. For me it'll be a case of replacing the dud motor when I'm detailing the under firebox and cab area and ditching the LEGOLAND drawbar. The difficulty you may have is that the front of the motor ie the metal can has 2 holes tapped to receive the electronics board that enables the chuff. I don't care for sound or smoke but I am keen on the nice lighting so i can likely forego the holes.
This is one of these long term projects amongst a ton of others so not too sure when I'll get to it but when I do I'll try to remember to drop you a line.
Cheers.
Thank you for the info, I will give this a try tomorrow morning. I found one of the magnetic covers, I can't believe I missed the other.
Were you able to fix the problem with your motor?
Luckily there are just 2 screws which are under magnetic covers; one is the dome and the other is the forward part of the turret. Unscrew those and the boiler above the running board should just ease off - no piping or rails to deal with.
Good luck with the motor I have that issue too. I'm sure it will be that alone, the gear towers are very robust doohickeys.
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Maybe you can find what you in here.
From the MTH web site:
https://www.mthtrains.com/sites/default/files/download/instruction/80st18070i.pdf
Mike.
My You Tube
Does anyone know how to remove the shell of a MTH 2-6-6-6 HO scale?
The motor is making rattling sounds and there is loud gear noise coming from above both engines. It is worse in reverse.
Also, there is flashing lights coming from the cab.
Thanks