Model Railroading > Athearn mystery noise......problem solved!

Hey Guys,
Back in January, "mstokinger" posted a topic called Ready-To-Roll Buzz. It was about the weird sound modelers found in several of their Athearn units. I too have been having the same problem with five or six of my Athearn loco's. I tried all the suggestions that were posted and still had no results.
Today I decided that I had to find out why this aggravating problem keeps insisting on plaguing me. I took two different engines that seem to be the worst and tried test runs on both. Yup, the sound was still there, forward and reverse, didn't matter.
I took two and brought them into my engine house (work shop) and removed the couplers and shells. Next I popped off both worm housing covers on one. Next I applied gear grease to the worm gear while turning the flywheel so the grease would work it's way into the gear assembly and then replaced the covers.
The next step is the one that solved the noise problem as I didn't grease the gears on the second unit, just this step.
I took the unit and stood it on it's nose and applied 2-3 drops of light oil on the shaft coming off the motor and let it slide into the bearing that holds the motor. With it still on it's nose, I kept turning the flywheel letting the oil flow into the bearing. Next I turned the loco completely over and and did the same on the other side.
I then took both back and tested them. I ran each one solo, both directions, slow to fast, dead stop to full power and found nothing but a sweet sounding engines!!

I hope this will help you guys out that suffered the same nightmare as I did.

Peter

Many people assume that these unit come from the factory properly lubed.

They assume wrong.

Well...I had some issues with my Athearn SD50's a while back and replaced the motors with the Roco "Genesis-syle" motor...Presto...silky-smooth drive under a great shell.

I have two of the latest SD40-2's and am planning similar conversions for them...I wish Athearn would just dump that old motor...I'd pay more for their RTR line with better motors!!

Thomas Austin
Centralia, IL
Joppa Sub Layout Site

Huzzah! Thanks for this post Peter! I have been struggling with an Athearn RTR GP38-2 that I purchased awhile back. I, like you, broke down the engine by parts and finally traced it back to the motor, but I was stumped at that point. I actually removed the worm gears and was letting it be a dummy engine for the time being.

But, saw your post, tried it myself, happy to say it is now rolling around the layout noise free. Well, as noiselessly as an Athearn can. :-P

So your post is greatly appreciated! I was stumped and now have my engine back!

ChessieFan2