Heard many times that the old BB's like to crack gears. My GE-C started to like to derail, wheels are in gauge but I cannot get the flanges centered.
Is this the way the gears should look or do they all like to crack the sameway?
All the slots or cracks where on the same side of the truck, they all so all look the same. Looked at a FP-45 that is a part gears looked just like the one's that was in the GE-C. At this point I don't want to pull a part a BB that is running right, if it not broken don't fix it.
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
No, those are the gears that crack in Proto 2000 diesel engines, and Athearn gears are a better choice for replacing them since the Athearn gears don't crack.
The Athearn gears that crack are in their HO-scale 2-8-2 Mikado steam engine, not their diesels.
I see some small cracks but the notch in the tops look like the ones that clickity clack
I just use a drop pf glue and carfully put the wheels back in and test that they dont twist or move and your set in gauge then yor back in action
Ken
Happen to pull a part a FP-45 that ceneter axle was out of gaugue. There was no slots in them. It is a older one with the bushing's in the trucks.
Are the gears the same?
OLD BB's seem to love the new MRC 9500 I will add.
cudaken wrote: Happen to pull a part a FP-45 that ceneter axle was out of gaugue. There was no slots in them. It is a older one with the bushing's in the trucks. Are the gears the same? OLD BB's seem to love the new MRC 9500 I will add. Cuda Ken
Yes,very little has changed with Athearns gears over the years.
I will say this I been using Athearn locomotives for years and yet to have a gear to crack or go bad..In fact I replace the crack gears in my P2K geeps with Athearn gears..I traded/sold my P2K locomotives off for Athearn and Atlas locomotives.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
I've been using Athearn's since 1983. In all that time, I've had only one that had cracked gears. That's an SD9 that I still run. 4 of the 6 axle gears in it were cracked. I changed them out with those from an F7 I had lying around and it ran great. I still use it today.
Ken,
The Athearn cracked gear issue that I was referring to in your previous post was a failure very similar to the P2K gears. The Athearn GP I repaired had a crack running lengthwise on one side of the gears in the area where the ½ shaft is inserted.
After I enlarged your second photo it looks to me like you have a crack running around the circumference of the gear hub. Different direction to crack but the results are the same. If that is true, you will find that the ½ shaft will not retain any tension on that side of the gear. This is why your wheel sets cannot stay in gauge.
Who knows where or how some of these old ePay “gems” have been stored? Or maintained? In a way, epay has become the Internet equivalent of the dealer’s junk table. A great way to thin the herd.
Since the parts are readily available just replace the gears with new. Glue will not last. Your LHS can order these from Athearn.
Jim
Ken, this is a cracked gear. This is as bad as it gets.
This was pulled from a NEW Athearn SD9. I decided not to send the loco back since it was something I could fix myself.
jeffrey-wimberly wrote:
cudaken, that looks like the cracked gears I pulled out of your DASH 8 when you had me work on it, only they weren't quite as bad. The teeth were separated because of it, and would constantly make clicking noises in the trucks.
The little square spot on each gear you showed is something Athearn purpously molds into the gears, but I don't know why.
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A Train, kind of looks like they where made into the molding to me that is why I was asking. As far as the track, well my board is way better but still far from being great. My other GE-C has no problem but does weigh more, it is the one I added weights to.
Soo, I have twisted the axles, they do fit pretty tight but the side with the slots are the one that will twist first so that could be a problem. It run's as quite as a BB should of that age. Far as the dump of the internet, still hard to go wrong with a Athearn. This one had the heck ran out of it, I paid $10.00 and logged around 100 hours on it before I had any problems.
I will take the gear's to the LHS today and see what Ken thinks.
Darth, is it where the wheels slide into the gears that causing the short on the Dash 8? I have yet to run it on the new MRC 9500. Problem could have been the MRC 6200 I bought (NIB from LHS before I get any flak) that was defective. Did you but the bad gears back into the box of the FP-45 I sent for parts? One's in the box looked just like the one's I posted PIC of.
All so PM me your address now that I am thinking of it. My wife grapped the box and it still had your address and I do not have the E-mail any longer.
On a side note for people that follow my pits falls and questions. My MRC 9500 will power Quade Headed BB's with no problems. At Wide Open Thottle hauling 45 car's engines are pulling 2 amps and they are cooking around 90 to 100 sMPH. Right now a doubled headed BB's train hauling the same train is doing around 40 sMPH and only pulling .7 to .8 amps and 9 volts.
Thanks for all the help folks!
cudaken wrote: Darth, is it where the wheels slide into the gears that causing the short on the Dash 8? I have yet to run it on the new MRC 9500. Problem could have been the MRC 6200 I bought (NIB from LHS before I get any flak) that was defective. Did you but the bad gears back into the box of the FP-45 I sent for parts? One's in the box looked just like the one's I posted PIC of. All so PM me your address now that I am thinking of it. My wife grapped the box and it still had your address and I do not have the E-mail any longer.
Yup, that's where the short happens. The ends of the axles get pressed too far in and touch eachother, causing the short. It can be fixed by putting a piece of tape or plastic on the end of one of the axles (so the ends don't contact eachother), or putting a washer between one of the wheels and its bearing.
Some of the bad gears went into the FP45 box, and the worst ones were swapped with the good gears from my parts GP40. The good gears went into the DASH 8. So you still have as many gears as you sent, but you ended up getting better ones than before.
When you say "PM", do you mean send you an e-mail with my home and e-mail on it? (I don't remember what PM means at the moment)
PM. stands for Private Message. It is listed when you first log in on a banner you need to look for.
Could I not just cut down the axles say a .10 of a inch?
First to answer your last question, yes, you could shorten the axle. I think it would be better to just insulate between the axle halves instead of cutting one shorter. Even a shortened axle could still touch the other axle and cause a short. With insulation between the axle halves, you can't have a short!
The other reason why I responded is to post a link I found in another post of a layout. When I was looking through his photos, it occurred to me that his layout seemed to have most of the features you wanted in a layout. I know you were planning on building a new layout. If your plans haven't changed and you don't have a final plan to work from, you might get some good ideas from this: Here's the link: http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a33/jxtrrx/JacksLayout/
Glad you got the powerful 9500. Hang on to the 2500 for now, just in case you need some backup.
I'm also glad that you're making progress, even though you keep finding all the little model railroad gremlins! I remember when you were ready to chuck it all in and sell everything on e-Bay! You've come a looooooong way from there!
Hope you keep having more fun!
Darrell, quiet...for now
Darrel, last thing the 2500 is doing is sitting! I have it as the A line thottle, it running a BL 2 Proto 2000 that is dragging 25 cars. 9500 is powering a quad head Blue Box speical dragging 54 cars on the B line.
Hope someday again we meet up and thank you so much for the 2500. Also thanks for the link, I have thought about that style of bench.
Ken your friend