Well several of my Kato 6 axle loco's and a number of my Atlas 4 axle's are making are screeching sound. One of them a Kato U30C I completly disasembled and cleaned, then I re-lubed the trucks and put a drop on barings but it is still screaming at me, mostly on curves but a little on straight sections. Is there a good magazine artical or website showing what all I need to do for a good tune up. I do not know if it helped but the apartment I live in had very high humidity this winter and most of the loco's that have the problem were out of there box for part of it. Kevin D Mumaw
Bearing Blocks? I think of this "squeal" as being caused by the bearing blocks that need lubrication. I call the bearing blocks the square parts that hold the worms on each end; there are four in each engine. When this occurs, I usually just disassemble the whole engine and go through it as it usually happens after a long time on the shelf. This is non-expert advice.
Put a drop of Atlas Conducta-Lube at each end of the motor shafts.(Between the motor and the flywheels) I'm sure it will solve the problem. As I have run into this before.
I can add two more lube points at either end of the motor. This is where the drive shafts come thru the motor case on the exterior of the case. Just a small smidget of a drop on the shaft at the point where it exits the motor case, do not apply any inside. Depending on age and wear the shafts have a bit of back and forth play.
Kato has a problem with the bearings at either end of the motor. When they go dry, screetching results. You have to disassemble the loco to get at them properly. Lubrication may help either permantently or just temporarily. I've had this problem many times.
So that's what the screaming is all about. I have about three atlas engines that does this. Thanks guys. verse
"You have to disassemble the loco to get at them properly...." Thanks Nolan That ever frightful word again- "DISASSEMBLE" I will add a postscript to the LLL slogan "Close is Good Enough" stating "Noisy is OK"
Not really. If you have the Conducta Lube as mentioned before. The tip on the bottle is very thin. All that has to be done is remove the shell.
I used to fear working on my loco's till I finally cracked one open and went to work on it. Mine had a freak breakage of a motor brush, something I could not have fixed without taking it apart. Once you do take one apart... Do just one at a time. Exploded views/Instructions are in the box liner... Things change and you enter a new realm of model railroader status. Start with the Atlas. Not only will you become more knowledgeable, but you will truly admire the engineering that goes into building these little gems. It's so simple it's brilliant. Good luck
Mark, I'm with you on this one.:thumbs_down: First you have to get the shell off. On some Kato models, not a horrid task: on the PA, well, all the interior "glass" seems to become dislodged. Then you have to get the lightboard or DCC board off. That's not much of a problem. Then you have to remove the plastic clips over each worm tower. Then you have to lift the central part of the weight out, making sure you don't bend the long contact strips into pretzels. Then you lube the motor bearings. Then you put the central weight back, sliding the contacts into place without making them into pretzels again. Then you put the plastic clips back on. Oooops! One breaks. Then you go to katousa,com and hope they have clips. Oh, you foolish grasshopper! Of course they don't have the clips! They are not even listed as parts! You call them. Nope, we don't have them. So you improvise. You superglue the clip together and wait three days. It breaks. You epoxy the part together and wait a week. It breaks. At this stage you swap the decoder to an undecorated unit. You say forbidden words very loudly. Ah yes, that's stupid mistake 57, I think: depending on Kato for a $0.01 clip that they probably sell for $1.00 plus $5.00 shipping! The problem: when the motor bearings seize, the engine runs jerkily. In a consist, this is rather disturbing, especially with the extremely sensitive personality of the PA in regard to its relationship with the rails. I think I'm going to put that PA into the middle of a potato for the next potato-launching contest out here in the wild west.
Kevin, I seem to recall one of the chaps on the A board had a rather permanent fix...he actually removed the inner bearing block (on each side of the motor) and that stopped the noise permanently and made the engines run silkily. This apparently works on any of the locos that use a bearing block on both sides of the worm. Wish I could remember who it was, I hate to steal someone's idea or fix - but it's more important that you get the information.
Bearing Blocks Not Involved? So it is a consenus here that the bearing blocks for the worm gears are not involved? Thanks. (When I heard the noise, I always lubed the motor bearings, too, so the noise stopped.)
There was quite a bit of discourse on this subject on the A board over a period of about a year. Some of the posters thought it was simply poor reassembly after a DCC board had been installed, some of course blamed the manufacturer for lousy design. The facts are that not all bearing block equipped locos squeal (or howl, or whatever). They can be silky smooth and quiet. And, for whatever reason, some locos can't be quieted short of removing the inner bearing block on each side of the motor. You lube them, and they're fine for a while, and then the squeal comes back. But I don't recall ANYONE saying the squeal returned after removing the inner bearing block. Furthermore, those who HAVE tried it report the silky locos they love to have.
Well I disasembled my U30C last night and re-lubed with some labelle between the flywheel and moter, and used some Lionel lube that is qiute a bit thicker on the baring blocks/metal shaft and it seems to have done the trick.When I find the rest of mine that are noisy I will do the same and if it does not fix those I will try removing one of the barin blocks. Thanks for the help. Kevin
Folks -- How many hours are on these locos (especially the Atlas locos) before the screaming starts? Thanks Hal
Usually many hours. Or many years, which is probably a better measure. I think the lube just dries out, especially here in the desert.
Pete: The lube dries out in the Florida humidity as well.:lightning: :lightning: Stay cool and run steam.......
I have about 30 engines, mostly Atlas and only had this problem on 1 engine. It was an older SD-35. It would squeal and whine like crazy. I took it apart, cleaned everything. Applied new lube, no help, still squealed like crazy. I had the engine for 2 years, but never ran it due to the noise. A few month ago, someone suggested removing the two inner bearing blocks to solve a related issue on a four axle unit. I figured, what the heck, Ill give it a try. Well, I pulled off the shell, split the frame and removed the two inner bearing blocks. Reassembled the loco, and it ran great. Smooth and quiet!! and only took 5 minuets. Me too. Who ever you are, thanks for the tip ! !
Reeeally..... I would have thought such an experiment would have other unintended consequences, especially on locos (such as most Kato and Atlas), that have a U-joint in between the motor and the inner bearing. You mean the worm gear doesn't just start rattling around?
