New Locomotive - do some "clunk" for a while

[Rotorranch]

Take the wheelsets out, and try turning one wheel while holding the opposite wheel. If one or the other spins, there's the bad set. Check all of them, it's not uncommon for all to be bad.

Lifelike has previously sent me free of charge enough wheel sets to replace all the broken ones in my 4 BL-2's. Took less than a week to get them. Now I need to call Walthers, and see if they will uphold the warranty, as all 8 of my FA's, and my 3 GP9's are all suffereing the same problem. In fact, all my P2K's except the 2 SW9/1200's have succumbed to this problem.

Rotor

[BRAKIE]

Yup,good old P2Klunkers gear issues.[V]

[cjcrescent]

scubaterry;
Long answer: yes

[georgev]

It is the gear on the axle that goes. There is a tube on each side of the gear that the axle halfshafts press into. It is those tubes that crack. Look at t each one under a strong magnifying glass with the wheelsets still in the tube so there is pressure pushing the tube open. On mine I could see a faint crack. It wasn't the gear itself that went - just the tube. I had 3 of the 4 gears split.

George V.

[MisterBeasley]

Which gear typically cracks, the one on the axle itself? I dismantled the truck, and couldn't see anything obvious. After I put it back together, I got less clunking, but more of a whining sound. Now that I've discovered I can get to the lower gear train from below and I don't have to take the whole dang engine apart, I'll probably go in and add some lubrication.

Yes, this is an old new engine. It's one of those GP-9's I got from MB Klein for an incredible price, $40 for a P2K. I assume it's been out of production since sometime before the Civil War, but it was still new-in-the-box and it was the road name I'd been looking for.

[Texas Zepher]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MisterBeasley

I just got a new P2K GP-9... the GP-9 clunks as it goes around the layout. It seems to do this at the same rate as the wheel rotation - 1 clunk per time around.

The short answer is yes.

I had one I threw a DCC decoder in and took to a club operating session. It acted just like you described. I thought it was going to have to be reworked or had a split gear. Since it was the only locomotive I had available, I ran it anyway. By the end of the session it was so smooth and quiet I could not believe it was the same locomotive.

[scubaterry]

I have a brand new LL GP-30 that does the same thing. Would it take the same parts as the GP-9?
Terry

[georgev]

If there is nothing stuck on the wheel, I too would suspect a split gear. I spent several hours debugging a 20 year old Athearn switcher that developed the same problem.

I would recommend contacting Life-Like first. If no luck there, and if, as cjcrecent said, the Athearn gears are a match, I would recommend trying Athearn. I got their set of 6 gears. Mailed a check and a letter of explanation, and had the gears in two weeks. Part # was 60024. Address is on the web site http://www.athearn.com/

George V.

[cacole]

How old is this locomotive? You say it is new, at least for you, but perhaps it is old stock left over from several years ago.

I had a similar problem with a BL-2 model because the gear ratio was different between the two trucks, and the clunking was caused by one trucks' gears jumping a cog to keep up with the other truck.

The clunking noise you hear is NOT normal. LifeLike sent me free replacement trucks and the problem went away. And they even paid the postage.

But Walthers now owns LifeLike, so the chances of getting replacement parts is questiionable. You should contact the seller or Walthers and see what their response is.

[cjcrescent]

MrB.
Sounds like you have a split gear there chief. LL in the past replaced these free of charge with just a letter/phone call to the company. Now since Walthers has bought them I don't know if Walthers can help or not since all the parts probably are still in storage. If they can't help at this time , see if you can get some Athearn axle gears. They are a drop in replacement.

Remove the bottom gear cover on the truck. Remove the wheels from the frame. Pull each split axle off of the gear, making sure not to lose the bearing. Place the axle and bearing into the new gear. Gauge the wheels with the NMRA gauge, Replace assembly into truck and snap gear cover back on.

Meant to add. Go ahead and get enough to replace all 4 axle gears. These locos have a history of all these gears eventually cracking.

[tstage]

Bruce,

See if there is a small piece of colored packing tape stuck to one of the drive wheels. This happened to me right after I put a new P2K S1 diesel switcher on my layout for the first time. Made the same observation you did, picked up the switcher to take a look at the drive wheels, and there it was - hiding stealthfully along one side of one wheel - a tiny piece of light blue mylar tape, used to seal one of the parts bags with. Removed the tape and - PRESTO! - the thump was gone.

Tom

[MisterBeasley]

I just got a new P2K GP-9, and a P1K Alco RS. The Alco is fine, but the GP-9 clunks as it goes around the layout. It seems to do this at the same rate as the wheel rotation - 1 clunk per time around.

Has anyone else seen this, or rather heard this with new P2K's or other engines? More important, is this something that will "break itself in," like a burr on a gear, or is it a manufacturing defect that needs to be returned. It's a mail order, so I'd rather not have to send it back, but the important thing is to have a working engine.

It's running round-and-round right now, so maybe the break-in question will be answered in a little while.