Athearn revamp

Yes Sir, I do know what you refer to
Just got done going thru the whole drive train and found some excessive play in a worn gear, shimmed that ran again same noise, gears were well lubed, nothing out of the ordinary.
Then oiled the motor bearings and walla, that noise went away.
I guess that expensive oil is no good. Gonna try some of that Voodoo oil George has referred to a couple times.
Voodoo, youdoo, whoodoo, gotta try some different oil here. something that will last a bit longer.
What do you think? Light oils, medium??
Tom Holley

 

I highly recommend Conducta-lube. You can buy it with Atlas' name on it or from the actual manufacturer, Aerocar Lubricants. It is good for motor bearings, but even more so, it is good for the commutator and brushes. I have been able to considerably improve and smoothen the running of open-frame motors.

 

Thanks Keith,
I will try and get some of that if I am home tomorrow. You just put it right on the brushes, where they meet the commutator?
Thanks,
Tom Holley

 

Yes, just a tiny drop of Conducta-Lube on the commutator can make a huge difference. I also place a drop on the electrical pick-ups from the axles or wheels; it's a good lubricant and improves electrical conductivity. On Atlas, Kato and some of the newer Athearn models, the pickup is a plate with holes that the axle ends ride in. On Proto 2000 and most of the older Athearn models, the pick-ups are metal plates in the trucks with square bronze bushings riding on the axles. In all cases, I have seen improvement in performance when Conducta-Lube is used.

 

I agree With Rick, Ken, Richard and many others, I am not bashing Athearn here, no intention of that at all. I just have a issue to deal with on my end. These things go thru a torture test here.
I have Athearn engines that have survived for 20+ years, just got to lube them once in a while like everyone says. I have well over 130 Athearn engines BB, RTR in all, but a very few have given me any trouble, The vast majority have performed just great, and I for one would never hesitate to buy another 2, 3, 100. Hope my wife doesn't see this.
Still got lots of peanut butter here.
Tom Holley

 

I have had no issues with any of the Athearn locomotives I have. I have assisted a couple of others that had older engines that needed some TLC, but were still running fairly well. My solutions are all about making them run as reliably and as smoothly as possible even if they don't have issues present. As with any mass-produced product, sometimes things just aren't properly aligned or maybe some lubrication may have been missed; for the most part we are talking about a very few individual items.

 

Tom - No, really they are pretty good. Their looks usually exceed their performance, but the performance ranges from OK to real nice, most often closer to nice. My only concern is that they can vary in performance from unit to unit - my two GP35's are a good example - 717 runs like a champ, 725 grinds a bit. But, 725 does run fine, it just makes noise. To give an indication as to how serious this is in my mind ..... I have yet to open up 725 to see what I can do to make it better after having it for several years!

BTW, a consist of Athearn's HO Frisco SD45-GP35-GP35-SD45 units, as was used often on the Eastern Division, really looks neat. I clearly recall one such consist at the Big Bend - Geyer crossing around 1979-1980, heading west at dusk. The boys were in a hurry, and they had them "pedal to the metal" pretty well with a long train, still climbing the hill. The noise was terrific! As I was crossing the tracks on Geyer, I saw the headlight coming down the track to the east, and pulled into the church parking lot to have a look. Glad I did, it was memorable!

Ken

 

Ken
Yep, I would bet that a train with 2 SD45's and 2 GP35's, all high HP per axle units, and sounding like they should, would go right to work on some tonnage if the hoghead, "skinned'em back" in the "company notch". Along with a bunch of cushion drawbars and those EMD's you could stretch'em out, and get spanked too, all in just a few minutes. You can't run a train like that anymore without getting an auto-download somewhere and a road foreman waiting for you with a cup. Man, that would have been a blast.
Thanks for that memories.
Tom Holley

 

Bob,
Yes I have, it seems to be good oil, have only used it for 3-4 months, but I cannot say it was worth the price, yet.
Tom Holley

 

Thanks George,
I went to that site looked around, even called them, talked to the Professor a while, real friendly people. I am going to give it a try, maybe some other stuff too.
Thanks for the link.
Tom Holley

 

Bought a bunch of new old stock Athearn USA made Bronze oil-light motor bearings (Left Photo). Also took the Chinese motor bearings (Right Photo) out of some Bad Order motors and compared them to one another.
You can clearly see the USA made ones are much more porous and able to hold more oil much longer. So, I can see now why the Chinese ones failed quicker now.
Just because the USA ones are more porous does not mean they are softer at all, in fact these little critters are very hard.
Got a set of very small HSS reamers and noticed the Chinese ones had a loose fit of between .127-.129, and the USA ones had a .126 fit. Much tighter fit and better bearing, IMHO

 

Got this idea about how to improve Athearns Blue Box motors. As many of you know I have had issues with the motor bushings, I think with the increased RPM we go thru 3X as much wear as a stock one does for the same amount traveled, its not uncommon for these locos to run for literally hours at a time.
Ran into these bearings, they are metal sealed Ball bearings, good for 50,000 RPM's, 80lb static load and 25lbs dynamic load rating. Dont think we come anywhere close to that in MRRing, so I am testing a couple dozen motors with these bearings. I have had a motor running at full throttle for 5 days straight and no heat generated and no measurable were, you cant hardly hear it. An added bonus is, there is no lube required,Have not seen any grease exit the bearings at all, the motor shaft his held with virtually no end play and no bushing play, that means the motor brushes aren't bouncing on the armature so the contact is better and minimal arcing, that can burn and contaminate the commutator.
The bell housings on the factory motors get bored to accept a 5.16 OD bearing, I do this in a mill so they are straight bores. use 1 flanged bearing for end play control and one non flanged bearing Both are 1/8 ID 5/16 OD.
So far I am very encouraged, you can barely hear them running, just a faint whirr of the bearings. Tried rubber sealed bearings, but they made a singing noise at high RPMs that was noticeable. The crazy thing is, these bearings can be found for a couple bucks each, (cheaper than the stock replacements in some cases) Also have been modifying the rubber motor mounts by cutting off the flared end and drilled with a #53 bit and used the Factory Athearn RTR screws, they work as good or better than the hard plastic ones.