What would cause my engine to do this???

[canazar]

Ok, I have a Athern RTR GP-60 M. A plug and play stye board with a DigiTraxx decoder.

The decoder had been in another engine and has worked fine. It has been in this unit for a few days. I noticed it tonight, the engine, seems to drag when it is goign foward.... seems to be taking more and more power to get it going. Also, it goes almost 25%-50% faster in reverse than foward. Doesnt matter where on the layout, or which direction it goes. Also, the deocder area on the engine seems to be getting a might warm. [banghead]

Any thoughts or ideas what would cause this?? Thanks much for the help.

[rrinker]

Either your mechanism is binding somewhere, or the motor is failing. Try taking the shell off and slowly turning the flywheel by hand to see if there is any bind in it. You might just need to lubricate things, or it could be a small piece of plastic flash on one of the universal couplings. Or a small piece of something got into the gears.
Don't continue to operate it until you find out the cause. It's probably drawing too much current, hence the heating - and this can kill the decoder.

--Randy

[canazar]

Thanks Randy....

Well, it had been working pretty well. Last week I oiled it up and clean the brush plates on the motor. Gear drives were oiled and inspected too. Both fine. I am inclind to think the motor is pooing on me or somehtintg else or decoder is getting stupid. [:(] Tonight, I am going to pull the decoder out and put it in a sister engine and see how that does. Run some expeirment and see if I can eliminate some theroys. Keep ya posted..

Best Regards
John k

[rrinker]

If you popped the brushes out - check that they are back in correctly. I had a never-before run Athearn that had one bru***uned sideways, so it was only making contact with the commutator on the two little ridges left from the curved shape. I popped the brush spring off and rotated the problem brush 90 degrees so it rode correctly on the commutator and it made a world of difference.

--Randy

[Anonymous]

Another way to check for binding gears is to remove the worm gears and pu***he loco over a glass surface. If the wheels don't roll, something is binding. Check to see if the motor is seated properly too.

[bogp40]

If the motor and trucks are free, reverse the motor leads to see if it will bind in reverse this time. If it does chances are it's the motor, if it still binds forward I would suspect the decoder.

[Virginian]

If this loco was running fine and then started acting up when you changed the decoder, I would say go straight to the decoder to find the problem. If you never ran it before that's a whole 'nother ball of wax. Swap decoders first, as that's easy. Then start digging in the loco if you still have a problem. I would not suspect gears binding in one direction unless you put something back together wrong.

[canazar]

Ok Got an UPDATE....

FIrst, you guys have had great ideas and have to thank you for the tips... But got some news for everyone...

Ok this mornign I went down and took it apart to see inside. (Last nite, i was just too cranky and did not have patience). I can tell, that the motordrive assemble, has got tight or stiffer. Somehting is causeing it bind. It was even worse this morning. I am postive it is in the motor and not the gear drives over the wheels or any kind of bind in the U-joints in the driveshafts.. I double checked both of those

So, for kicks, I cleaned and reoiled the contacts, no difference. Is there bearings on/in the unit? Maybe somehting inside that can fail??

I am going to take it part tonight and dig too see what is causieng to get so tight or binding. Whatever failed, has failed quick. This failure has occurred over less than an hour fo run time over the course of 3 or evenings. Good thing is, the board has the clips on it so removing wires will be easy. Got thoguhts on it now, feel free.... Ill post up what happens tonight

Best Regards everyone..

John k

[canazar]

Well, I pulled it apart last nite with no luck. I think it is either gottn tight on the shaft bearings on the frame holding the main drive shaft or somehting has begun to drag it inside the motor. I cant get the stupid thing out of the frame (well afraid if I pull to hard I am going to break somehting) Does Athearn sell replacement frame and motor assemblies? If not, then I have a supposedly brand new engine off Ebay sittign up in the shelf looking pretty..... great [banghead]

Best regards
john k

[Anonymous]

John, try pushing the plastic motor mounts up from the bottom with a small screw driver. You can also pry the mounts from the sides.