I bought an Athearn GP 35 off of evil bay. It came in today and I opened the box very excitedly. It looked great, put is on the tracks and it had one speed - slow. Took it off, greased the gears and cleaned the wheels. It ran a little bit better but still slow. What else can I do? It is a nice looking engine.
How new? Blue Box style? First thing I'd do is disconnect the trucks and turn the shafts by hand, com paring both. Do they turn easily? If not, when you lubed it, did you do a full teardown of the trucks, digging out any congealed concrete? Then, turn the motor by hand. Open frame or can? Did you oil the motor shaft bearings? If open frame, clean the bushes and commutator, running an xacto blade down each segment slot. Then try it again. If trucks turn freely, I'd be looking at a motor. The contact strips...unless it's stuttering and light blinking, probably not. Dave
It is a blue box style. I didn't teardown the trucks. I pulled the cover off the worm gear and oiled that. It is an open frame. Where is the motor shaft bearings? I don't know how to clean the brushes. I cleaned the commutator some. When you say, run an xacto blade down each segment slot, what do you mean? I am just learning how to do this and am not sure of myself. I don't want to screw things up. Here is a picture of it .
That is a really old Blue Box in that they went to Brass Flywheels and a Gold Can Motor in the late 70's, so that motor and flywheel setup pre-dates the later Blue Boxes. If you look at the commutator which the the brass part that the brushes ride on there are slots that sometime get gunk in them that needs to be cleaned out for the motor to run at its optimum rpm's. The next thing I would do is get rid of the clip on the top and hard wire the trucks to the engine to get a better electrical path from the trucks to the motor. I would disassemble the trucks and clean out any old grease and re-lube the gears with a plastic compatible grease. Also the sintered wheels on those old units would pickup dirt from the track like nobody's business, I would be sure to clean those too! Rick J
I am going to have to take the trucks off and see what I can do to clean them. Just turning the engine over I took a lot of fuzz out from around the axles. So, I would think taking the worm gear covers off, the trucks will drop out and give me full access to the gears? Do the side wheel covers (do not what you call them) come off easily or do I have to drop the trucks from the engine? I will go to the hobby shop tomorrow and get some grease. If they don't have any, what should I use? The next hobby shop is 60 miles from my home one way.
Yes the worm gear covers is the way to drop the trucks out of the unit. There are plastic covers on the bottom of the truck that are a snap fit over the two halves of the truck. Use a small screw driver to pop them off and the truck with disassemble itself. I just read of a common grease that will work with plastic gears, I will see if I can find that e-mail and get back to you. Rick J
I took the plastic covers off from the bottom exposing wheel gears but the wheels do not come out. I think those side covers need to come off for the wheels to come out.
The worm cover comes off to release the truck from the frame. There should be two ears that extend towards the motor that retain it, if I recall. Get the trucks out, see how they turn by hand, then we'll get into disassembly. http://www.hoseeker.com/athearnstandardguide2/assemblyinstructions/1athearngp350973.jpg
This is an earlier version, trucks at bottom. There should be two sections to the worm housing, short and long, release both and take them off together, holding them together, as there are thrust washers inside you do not want to lose. http://www.hoseeker.com/athearnstandardguide2/assemblyinstructions/1athearnmdgp9gp30gp35f7a0866.jpg
This is a later version with one piece worm cover and square bearings. Again, don't lose anything! http://www.hoseeker.com/athearnstandardguide2/assemblyinstructions/1athearngp350684.jpg
Tramp here is a good overall vid on what needs to be done. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYkzmwS-sYg All though this one is a P2K the concept is the same ratled
Did you get the trucks off? Lube type you'll get. I have my own, but someone else offered. Get the trucks off. See how they turn. See how the motor turns. Pop the clips off that hold the gearbox halves together, separate a bit, the wheels will come out.
I haven't taken the trucks off yet. It has been a long day (up at 4:00 this morning) and I want to do this when I am not tired. Will try this after work tomorrow or first thing Saturday morning.
tramp - I just got an old BB FP-45 today from "evil bay" with those same truck types. Good advice from others already so I'll not confuse the issue. If you've never taken one apart it can seem intimidating but they are very straightforward and simple - and this truck design is very common across the board with other makes as well.
I just took the truck off the engine and took a look at it. It seems simple. There is a clip on one side on the top just like the clip that covers the gears on the botton of the trucks. If I take that off, the trucks will come apart. I did not take it apart but I played with it a little bit. Tomorrow when I am not tired, I will take the clip off and clean the gears. I have already taken fuzz out from the bottom of the trucks so I imagine there will be fuzz when I open the trucks. I am all thumbs so I don't want to be tired when I do this. Wish me luck and I will let you guys know how it is turning out. Question. I have a motor out of an athearn hustler that looks to be the same size as the one in the gp35. If worst comes to worst do you think the hustler motor will work in the gp35? It runs good and I am not using the hustler.
No. You won't get the u-joint ends out of the flywheels, you'll play heck getting them off the shaft anyway, the mounting in the fuel tank is totally different, if I recall...yours uses a rubber mount, the Hustler one screw. The contact strip won't fit the Hustler motor. Forget that.
The hustler is a remotor and placing the hustler motor upside down on the GP35, The contact strips on top the motor are exactly the same length. The motor appears to be the same length. Also, the hustler has rubber motor mounts, the same as the GP35. The contact strip fits the hustler motor exactly. This is my last resort. Also, the truck that I took off turns freely - doesn't appear to bind anywhere. On my GP9 that was remotored, the flywheels pulled off fairly easily.
Thank you guys. This thread has helped me quite a bit. Most of the locomotives I have, have sat for a few years. Some work fairly well and others just don't seem to want to work. Now I have some idea what might be wrong with them. Good job.
Good to know it's a remotor. Originals won't work easily. Me, I'd like to find out what is actually wrong and try to fix that before I start just throwing parts at it. Now, with the trucks off, and insuring the motor spins freely by hand (and you can remove the brushes to insure), apply power to the motor with your alligator-equipped-leads, and see if you can detect sparking off the commutator. Finally, clean commutator and brushes.
