I recently purchased an Athearn AC4400. It ran shakey right out of the box. Now it only happens at low speeds. It reminds me of an old lionel engine that you can't stop smoothly. Anybody else have this problem, or know what I should do? Thanks
I just recently purchased one too and had the same results straight out of the box. I converted it to DCC and I'm amazed at how it runs now. It is almost as smooth as a Genesis loco now.
I grabbed a cheap preowned one at a bring-and-buy table a few years ago and it wasn't a good runner. I took the mechanism apart and cleaned and lubed the gears, and it then ran very well. Similar exercise with a P2k engine - seems some people never do any maintenance and just assume it's had it when it stops working well ...
I have had two HO Athearn locos. A SD 45 I had similar problems as your having. What I should have done was taken it back to the LHS for another one. But I kept it and as the other post suggest I took it apart lubed it and it was fine. BN Bi Centennial I also have a P42 PHV it had no such problem, but the side plate for the truck was broken out of the box. No Gorilla Glue!
With an Athearn that is shakey and noisy check to see if the rubber motor mount pads have come out of the holes that hold them. As above cleaning and lubrication of the gears and bearings usually works wonders.
I had to to tear down the trucks on mine and rebuild them from the workbench up. They were so badly constructed they were shorting out. The solders were of very poor quality as the wires came off when the wires were pulled very gently. I ended up replacing the front truck altogether as it had internal damage that couldn't be repaired. As far as the motor mounts go, if yours is like mine, the motor mounts are rigid and are held in by four screws.
I guess I really got suckered. Too late now to return it, and I'm not technically inclined enough to repair it.
