wmyersr,
First off: to the forum! Good to have you aboard!
You might try tightening your truck screws. You don't want them too tight or they'll bind. Too loose and the cars will trimmer as they roll along. You want to have the trucks just loose enough so that they rotate freely but don't wobble in the rotating pin.
Tom
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wmyersr wrote:I have several cars that shake when running. This very annoying. Does anyone have tips on correcting this?Thanks in advance.
Heres my fix.I tighten the truck screws till the trucks can't turn..I then back the truck screw off 1 1/2 turns this leaves the truck snug to the frame and still leaves enough truck swing.
Larry
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Have you added wieght to your cars, to NMRA standards. If you don't have grades you can add more. This will help emensly.
Make sure one of your trucks is pretty snug to the frame but allow the other truck to wobble slightly.
Check the trackwork, Even my Peco turnouts cause a bit of a bump up at the frogs. I file them down.
John
1. Clean the rails.
2. Clean the wheels.
3. Tighten one kingpin screw all the way down. Then back it off until the truck swivels, but does not rock. Leave the other kingpin loose enough for that truck to rock.
4. Use a truck tuning tool. Reboxx and Micro Mark sell them.
5. Replace the wheelsets.
6. Replace the trucks.
7. Replace the cars.
BillD53A wrote: 1. Clean the rails.2. Clean the wheels.3. Tighten one kingpin screw all the way down. Then back it off until the truck swivels, but does not rock. Leave the other kingpin loose enough for that truck to rock.4. Use a truck tuning tool. Reboxx and Micro Mark sell them.5. Replace the wheelsets.6. Replace the trucks.7. Replace the cars.
...and don't forget the smile and cold beer while you're at it!
I agree with the above...any one of these may help, or all of them might be necessary, depending on the cause. Is your track dippy and uneven, or if it is nice and level, is it consistently supported below it so that the weight of passing trains doesn allow depression? Are the trucks twisted, axles slightly bowed, wheels not centred or are they out of round,...?
The best thing to do is to take one offending item at a time, and go through the entire list. This may seem daunting, but if you decide that you will tackle one item per evening over the next two weeks, and devote the entire 20 minutes or so that it will take to do that one car, you should be in fine shape before many days have passed. Either that, or take a sober look at your trackwork.
Another one - check the base of the car where the truck mounts to the underbody. That needs to be flat, as well as the top of the truck. If you use washers between the truck and body for height adjustment, they need to be flat, too.
(This answer provided with a smile and a cold beer, as suggested above.)
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Besides everything else that has been offered, check your wheelsets to see if one or more of the axles are 'warped'. This can cause wobbling. If so, replace the wheelsets with either P2K or Intermountain metal wheels.
Best of luck, and BTW, welcome to the forum!
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
twhite wrote: Besides everything else that has been offered, check your wheelsets to see if one or more of the axles are 'warped'. This can cause wobbling. If so, replace the wheelsets with either P2K or Intermountain metal wheels.Best of luck, and BTW, welcome to the forum! Tom
Gotta watch some of the P2K wheel sets..Before I converted to the new Athearn trucks I bought one pack of P2K 33" wheels and 4 was warp.I return this pack and tried another and those was good to go.My standard club wheels was P2K 33" wheels in Athearn trucks.
BTW..That was the second "bad" pack I bought in 5 years and I bought these within 3 weeks of each other..Thankfully my LHS exchanged them.We thought it could have been a bad batch or was damage some how.
It would be interesting to know the manufacturer of the wobbling cars: Train Miniature, and later, Walthers, had a time when the wheelsets in their trucks were either out-of-round or not concentric on the axle. Replacing the wheelsets cured the problem, or, if you were like me and had quite a few of these cars, simply scrapping only the faulty wheelsets (sometimes only one axle on a car) then consolidating the remaining "good" wheelsets on the majority of the cars, and replacing all wheelsets on only a few. Saves some cash when you've got 30 or 40 of these cars.
Wayne
Also check the boss where the truck mounts, sometimes these are too long and no matter how much you tighten the screws, the truck will still wobble. If this is the case, file down the boss until tightening the screw as Brakie suggests eliminates the wobble.
Rick
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MOST 'Wobble' is caused by wheel not centered or insulation being offset.
'Triangulation' (one truck tightened) (one loosened) changes frequecy and may help,
Othewise changing trucks is the answer.
Real RR cars 'sway' (not 'wobble') - from uneven track.
I have found that a number of the Proto metal wheels have a little plastic flash on the end of the pointed ends of the axle and what first appears as the wheels wabbling is actually this plastic flash on the end of the pointed axle moving the axle up and down in the truck.
I just carefully cut the flash off the pointed end (which is usually the one end) and the wheels then run fine.
I took me quite a while to finally see this and I didn't have to do any returns to the LHS.
I have since figured that most of the problems are a simple manufacturing problems which can usually be corrected with out thinking everything the MFG sells is junk!
A little observation goes a long way!
BOB H - Clarion, PA
Hi Folks,
Thanks for all the great input. Here are some answers to some questions I noticed and some things I have tried.
All Train cars are Atlas. Most had trucks with rapido couplers. I switched them to trucks with accumate couplers. The trucks have plastic pins to secure them not screws. I have experimented with trying to make the trucks tighter but not having much luck.
Next I will examine the axles, and try to get the cars to the proper weight. I noticed that a few of the cars have a slightly lose weight already.
Again, thanks for all the ideas.
Roger
Roger,
Get rid of the plastic pins and use self-tapping screws instead. Pins don't hold very well and usually fall out at the worst time. (Is there any good time for them to do that?)
If you are using Rapido couplers, I'm assuming you are in N-scale? In HO, 1/4" long 2-56 screws is what you need to hold the truck to the center post. I don't know the size needed for N-scale trucks. Most likely 1-?
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I'm surprised nobody said to model Penn Central during the 1970s :p
But seriously, it sounds like the trucks need adjusting. Also, accummulated dirt on the wheels can do that too. A little Goo Gone will take care of that.
emdgp92 wrote: I'm surprised nobody said to model Penn Central during the 1970s :pBut seriously, it sounds like the trucks need adjusting. Also, accummulated dirt on the wheels can do that too. A little Goo Gone will take care of that.
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