Some of my older Proto 2000 "Athearn clone" mechanisms have the dreaded axle gear split. Do any of you know what Athearn part number I need to look for to replace in the 4-axle diesels? Did Athearn's 6-axle and 4-axle diesels use the same axle gear? Thanks for any input.
Hi Andre, You might try to pre-drill your plastic axle with a #41 bit, you will never have another problem. Been doing this for 20+ years and have had no problems with cracked gears.
Thanks for the tip, Tom! I have yet to check my old Front Range/Athearn KC&G Geeps. Those used actual Athearn trucks. So far, the problem only seems to be on the Chinese knock-offs in the early P2K stuff. Okay, 'ya got me wonderin' there, Tom, so I dug out my ancient analog MRC Tech 2 and clipped it to a section of flex track: Both of my Front Range/Athearn/Mashima KC&G GP7's run butter smooth and whisper quiet (as in almost zero detectable noise) as they did 15 years ago! Flushed with that success, I tried the rest of my KC&G engines: The Frateschi/Kato FA1, Kato NW2, Atlas/Kato RS-3's, Stewart/Kato F's. All of them silently eased down the track at impressive slow speed. See the common denominator? "Kato". Wonder how well the plastic and "Delrin" in our Chinese Wonders will hold up 20 years from now as these have. I am SO GLAD I kept my KC&G stuff instead of purging them to the masses as I did all my Frisco and Mop stuff back about 17 years ago. Shucks, this KC&G "thang" just MIGHT become my "primary road", and the other KC roads my connections. Hmmmm. I would need give that idea some careful thought, though. All fer now.
