I recently heard about someone using Petroliuem Jelly as a Lubecant in Athearn gears. Does this relly work? I have heard in the past this will eat up the plastic in the gears? ------------------ Theres no such thing as having to many coal hoppers or GP40-2 when you model Chessie System LONG LIVE THE KITTEN!!! LONG LIVE BIG BLUE!!! I looked at DCC... and stayed DC!
I don't know about using petroleum jelly as a lubricant for the Athearn gears; there is the possibilty of it damaging the plastic. It's always a good idea to use a plastic-compatible oil or light grease on your units, and sparingly, at that. A little goes a long way! A brand that works very well for me is LaBelle, they make several grades of oil and grease that are safe on plastics. ------------------ Have A Nice Day!
I currently use labelle and anthor gell like lubercant thats plastic friendly. ------------------ Theres no such thing as having to many coal hoppers or GP40-2 when you model Chessie System LONG LIVE THE KITTEN!!! LONG LIVE BIG BLUE!!! I looked at DCC... and stayed DC!
i have been using petroliuem jelly on my athearn locos for about 8 years now and have never had a problem with any of them, i doubt it would damage plastic after all it is designed to be rubed into skin.... ------------------ Matthew wheres all the C636's???? stickymonk.com Matts Photo gallery
Chessie_SD50_8563, Stickymonk, who know from whence he speaks, notwithstanding. One think you must be careful of is OVER lubricating with heavy grease. Think of the "minute" amount of torque that your motor generates, if it has to overcome heavy lube. that will slow your engine down. Yes, petroliuem jelly will thin out with the heat of operation, but why not start out with a product that is meant for small motors. I think you're fine with labelle products or try Wahl clipper oil. It is very fine, meant for the small clippers that barbers use, and it is compatable with plastics. ------------------ When in doubt, empty your magazine.
I, too, have used petroleum jelly in my gears for almost ten years with no real side effects. In fact, I have never re-lubricated any of these locomotives. Another tip is when breaking in new locomotives to put a dab of toothpaste in the gears. It polishes the teeth with just the right amount of abrasiveness. After some running time, I disassemble the truck, check for any excessive flash, clean out the paste and lubricate with a small dab of petroleum jelly. These two tips have really quieted the gear noise in my Athearns. It's proof that if you are willing to put forth a little effort, your Athearns can run almost as smooth as the newer production units, and at a fraction of the cost.
Hmmm, so a little toothpaste and Vaseline and i'll be running a Kato? Sorry, couldn't resist! I do plan on converting my Athearn units to 'Hexed flywheels with dogbones' though...
Tunnel88 sez... >Hmmm, so a little toothpaste and Vaseline and i'll be running a Kato? > There may be more truth in that than you'd like to admit. A quick example and I'll go back into hibernation. In the early 80s, Model Power came out with their E7 (or E8) and they were balky and noisy. They were nice looking but terrible runners. I used the toothpaste and ran them for 30 minutes in each direction. I then cleaned out the gear towers and gears and then lubed them with a light coating of Vaseline. The low speed improved dramatically and the noise was gone. I sold several units (I had a hobby shop back then) and I know of three that were still running well as of two years ago. In fact, I had several customers ask why my units ran so well when others didn't. I told them and even sold a couple from that. With the proper seating of the gears, a little lube and a little effort, who knows what you can see. Roger Roger Hensley - rhensley@anderson.cioe.com == http://cid.railfan.net/eci_new.html == == East Central Indiana Railroad ==
I think i'll give it a try on one of my units that's gonna get the retirement ax. I'll report the results as well....
This sounds like a good idea. I'm going to try it on a couple of Athearns that have high noise and are balky when they do run.While I'm at it I'll try to improve the electrical pickup also. I imagine I'll stick with Labelle for lube. ------------------
Okay I admit. I have been using Petroleum Jelly in a U30B for over a year with no problems. I recently heard that it ate plastic so I wanted to double check this only with everyone else before I applyed it to my C44-9W my SW1500 and my SD40-2 ------------------ Theres no such thing as having to many coal hoppers or GP40-2 when you model Chessie System LONG LIVE THE KITTEN!!! LONG LIVE BIG BLUE!!! I looked at DCC... and stayed DC!
I was observing a couple Athearn models without the shells to get a feeling of how they ran at slow speeds. One thing i noticed was that at really slow speeds the way the drivetrain is made with all the couplings that it makes them inheritantly balky. It appears there is a torqueing effect. I bet the new Athearn drivetrain with the straight thru dogbones doesn't have this problem; i really want to see how they run at slow sppeds. I think i'm gonna have to get one of the new SD40-2s to check it out firsthand. Here's a pic of that new drive- http://www.fwc-host.com/miscimages/c0140_40drive.jpg
Some Athearn units come with a lot of gear noise, and it usually is associated with flash on the gears. There are ways to take care of this. I have known modelers who take "Pearl Drops" tooth polish and put a couple of drops in the gears. Then they run the loco for an hour or so then disassemble the gears, clean them, put a couple of drops of labelle on the gears and the unit runs very quiet. Other people have just disassembled the gears and filed off the flash. Now if you want a real stump puller, replace the athearn gears with Ernst gears and you can almost pull anything. A friend of mine did it to his old SD40's and pulled a 70+ car train up a two percent grade with two SD40's. ------------------ A.J. y6b N&W and Conrail Fan http://communities.msn.com/TheGRRModelRR
Very Old Thread - Recurring Question This is a very old thread on a topic that I have some current interest. I brought it back up to see if there are any newer ideas or testimonials. I have just acquired an Atlas GP38 (Atlas master Locomotive Series, decoder equipped) and a B23-7 (Atlas Master Locomotive Series - Silver). The B23-7 has a Digitrax DH123 decoder. of these two, only the B23-7 has the growling gears. I don't know the background of these engines from the same owner, but the B23-7 has some grease in the trucks that I would consider heavy. I hope to reassemble and clean it up, but I am considering doing the Pearl Drops-toothpaste technique while I am at it. Is that a good plan? Any other ideas? Thanks. The GP38 is smooth, smooth, smooth. I will add that this is one heck of a good weathering job. I didn't do it. B23-7 GP38
Flash: I have been using "synthetic" automatic transmission fluid on my gears for several years now with no problem. It does not gum up over time. You must make sure that the ATF is synthetic though.
Yes. I think this would be a more fluid lubricant than Vaseline or grease. I think I am going to clean that grease out of there.
I recently found this site: The Care, Feeding and Growth of your Athearn Driven Power He seems to know what he is talking about. You guys may want to check it out.
