I have a question, My life like is old (15 years) but has about 10 minutes of time on it. Sounded like an egg beater when I first started it up but it is much quieter now. Before I started it I cleaned it and gave it about a half a drop total on the motor bushings and lubed the gears in the trucks and worm gears (sparingly). It is just that it has that electric motor smell not over powering but it is there. Is it worth (and can you doe it?) re-motoring these older Life Like Locos? On the case it says: 7841 GP38-2 BN. Thanks for any input. I,m old but I am a noob. Greg
I guess it depends on what your budget and expectations are.... If it is one of the older LL units with the "spring" drive, you're probably setting yourself up for disappointment. If it has a drivetrain with flywheels, it might be worth saving... Harold
Spring drive, So I guess it is not worth it I will weather the heck out of it and make it a yard ornament on my layout. Thanks for the info.
I'ld run it till it either started to run and smell a lot better...or burned up. If it continues to run...ya got a semi-good little loco. If it burns up...thennnn its a 'yard ornament'. :tb-wink: .
My LL GP38-2 with spring drive is one of my nicest running locos. Smooth and quiet. It might be worth saving.
I had a GP18, SD7, and FA with the spring drive and they all ran good. There not as nice as a newwer LL/Atlas/Kato but they do work. My FA was the best pulling loco I ever had and I wash I had never gotten rid of it. KEvin
Above advice is pretty good,but....First, the motor in those is pretty good. They have made tons of them. I have had a number of different Life Like offerings anf this is my least favorite. Mind you its not bad for what they cost, but there are some inherent flaws. The biggest prolem you will probably find is the wiring. Very old school. All newer engines today use a fairly simple but good reliable system to transfer power from rail to motor. The GP38-2 uses some very thin wire that has a tendency brake off at the solder joints over time. and given the small gauge of the wire I have had it get hot and melt the insulation off of it. Here is a link to Spookshow's website where I stole the above photo(thanks Mark) and you can find a great review on same unit. http://www.visi.com/~spookshow/llgp38.html Now, with all that said in summary I would say to go ahead and run the lil guy until it gives up, but dont waste money on remotoring. If you have your heart set on a GP38 then if you can find the newer version made by LifeLike you wont be disapointed or for that matter go on ebay and buy another cheapy one like you have now. Most of all have fun!!
Agree with others - the spring drive is outdated, but after a good break in, they can be good runners. I still have some of the F7s that I run just for fun from time to time. Yeah, they are old technology, are out of scale slightly, and lack detail. But these old things can out-pull just about any engine I have!
