Athearn Locomotive wheel tune up tricks.
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- čas přidán 6. 02. 2014
- Athearn Locomotive tune up tricks showing my technique for polishing wheels and also how to add extra electrical contacts to the trucks.
Hope you find it informative and thanks for watching.
Thank you for this video! Your electrical pick ups work like a charm! My two GP 40x where headed to the scrap pile until I saw your video. Now I’m pleased to say they are back in service! Not only are they back in service but they run so sweet now! And to think, it was a $3 fix!
NBGRAFFEXX - I added the wires as you suggested to an Athearn SW1500 and it greatly improved the locomotive performance. Thank you for the useful video and great tip! Mike
Have several tubes of phosphor wire and been looking for ages how to apply them. Thanks, your video solved my inaction.
Love the 0.010" styrene wheel-bearing-axle spacer jig tip, brilliant!
Thanks profklyzlr! Glad you liked it!
NBGRAFFEXX - Yeah! The .010 styrene is simple brilliance!! The fact that it's properly centered, AND ends up almost in gauge - is amazing! :D
Never had any issue with parts breaking. If they break during dis-assembly or reassembly, it just means that they were going to break anyways. It might be a lot of work to some, but remember that this is a hobby! I do these tuneups like this because I am a Mechanic by trade and I use those skills to improve my hobby skills and vice versa.
I just picked up some of the wire you used for the pick ups on Ebay. I have several athearn locos I plan on re working and fixing up. Thanks for the video. :)
The wire used #1106 .0125" Phosphor Bronze. Translated it is 30 gauge wire which I find too thin but very workable, I have had no issues using 26 or 24 Gauge copper wire easily found in the craft section at places like Walmart or Hobby lobby as it's mostly used for Jewelry and comes in many colors but go with Silver or basic copper the others are coated and may have pickup issues. The Walmart stuff is $3 and no shipping costs and being slightly thicker seems to hold up better in my experience. Great video and great tips!
P.S If Athearns are frustrating you, sell them to me, I'll buy them off you to help out no problems, these old trains outlive everything else even 2000's era stuff easily, step 1 or not is irrelevant, Trains are meant to pull loads faster than a snail anyways.
now I like your idea with the wire pick up's. Going to have to give that a go on some of mine. Thanks
Just watched. 5 yrs ago huh?
I learned a lot! Thank you!
Now I gotta try it.😃
Brilliant work, thanks for the info !
Very nice idea! I restore, kit bash and clean up old Blue box athearn engines.
Great mod! Phosphor Bronze wire is perfect. Wet and dry sand paper at that grit will remove less than .00002 thousands of an inch before you wear the paper out. It just polishes much like the creams. Good stuff any ways.
Glad I found this video I was about to throw my Athearn CF7 against the wall. Now runs great no sound drop out and runs through all my hand laid switches from end to end on my layout.
Glad to hear about your CF7. I modified the 2 I have the same way as the GP9M i built that is in the video.
It's amazing what proper care & maint can do, I have a nice collection of Athearn BB's that were being tossed away by friends or neighbors who were clueless about them. These mods are a bit overboard but really help in areas where their design weren't intended therefore giving them a new lease on life. You ever want to get rid of the great running Athearns hit me up.
Great video, thank you for sharing.
Wow, while that is all good, that is a lot of work. I like to put my loco's upside down into a foam cradle, and connect feeder clips to the trucks. I run up the motor and use Q-tips with Goo Gone to clean up the grime etc off of the spinning wheels. Then I use Isopropyl alcohol and Q-tips to clean again because while Goo Gone is great for cleaning, if left on the wheels is bad for conductivity. Of course adding the wipers is always a great way to improve pickup, if you need extra measures. The part I don't like, is that on older Athearn locos,when taking them apart, things like to break, I try to avoid that.
Thank you for doing the video. I appreciate it. I have an Athearn and have had A LOT of problems with electrical pick-up of the wheels. I am going to try this technique this weekend coming. I just have to find some suitable wire.
Phosphor Bronze wire from Tichy in .010 will work very well.
Excellent video. Thanks for sharing.
Wire pickup works great thanks so much 4 the idea. :-)
Excellent video. Thanks for sharing. I already bought me some of the wire. Ready to give it a try on Athearn RTRs. They are worse than Blue Box when it comes to pick up.
+MRLTrains The reason is because the sideplates are chemically blackened causing very poor power transfer.
Great video
Ingenious idea. Gives me ideas . . .
This is my first time viewing. Very impressed with your machine shop cleaning of these ATHEARN wheels. The wire you soldered to the metal interior frame looks thin but i guess strong.
The inside of Athearn mechanisms seen lots of times & ages. I have tons of fleets of them. I noticed some alterations on the front clip light that gives the bulb power that clips onto the chassis. Not there or the removed clip lock coupler covers. I want to mention I have a GE U 23 ATHEARN engine the front clip can no longer lock so that means no more light ups in front of the engine. I saw your version rebuilt fancy for lights in both directions. I have to convert it similar to what you have on your diesel. This is a blue box as well. Its not DCC or any sound gadgets. I need what i have viewed to replace & add a rear lighting similar to ATLAS circuitry. Of course i got something watching your video. Thanks.
Great Video, very informative :) I have subscribed now.
Quite elaborate, yet effective. I see by the comments, that this level of maintenance, isn't for everyone...
They're the one's keeping the RTR market going strong - and who killed the Blue Box in the first place!! :(
I think it's a great idea... the sintered iron wheels do provide way better traction. They ARE however, crap magnets. THAT is a thorough way to completely clean them!
I've bought the Nickel-Silver replacements - but I can't always spend that kind of money....
I've been using TCS decoders, with Auto-BEMF and Keep-Alive *EXCLUSIVELY* !! I roll over the DIRTIEST track, and ANY dead frog - without so much as a light flicker, or the tiniest bit of fluctuation in speed !! :D
I still believe in proper maintenance, of track AND wheels, and will try this method.
The bronze wire pickups are a BRILLIANT idea!! I can't WAIT to try that!
Subbed you!! :)
Thanks for the comment. Sorry I havn't responded sooner but this is now a "legacy" you tube channel so I don't check it that often. I think you will find a huge improvement in your wheels not being a "crap magnet" as you described them. I also fine that for the really rough wheels, a strip of automotive wet/dry 1500 grit sandpaper glued to a hardwood block really does the trick. Follow that with the polish and added pickups and enjoy.
Nelson Beaudry as a retired Auto Tech, I still keep supplies like that on hand....
I actually enjoy doing maintenance - to a point!
So new channel? Where can I find it?
Blue box was retired by Athearn due to costs to labor issues, basically the RTR cars were getting to be cheaper than the kits you had to build bringing about the WTF process. Why pay 50 dollars then build it when the same detail and quality was ready to go out of the box....only a dummy would question this.
That said I'm a dummy cause I prefer the Blue box stuff and was raised on it. It brings you deeper into the hobby I think when you build every detail, plus you can use your creativity and make every car, building your own.
Sadly this hobby is about dead due to price gouging by the manufacturers keeping new people from entering the hobby due to outrageous pricing and extremely cheap crappy starter sets.
Very interesting and informative, enjoyed this. I myself have plenty of Blue Box Athearns and I may have to try this on a few of them, some of the older ones I have the pickup can be erratic. Have you done this pickup modification to any six axles? I am curious as to the best way to do that using the wire you used. Thanks for sharing!
Thank You !!!!
I gave a thumbs up. If only I had a drill press!
Enjoy your tips; the wire is a good way to assure constant pickup on those old blue box Athearn loco's.
Thank you Sir
Very impressive, Do you have any techniques for 3 wheel trucks?
Do you need to do the truck wiring update to the new Athearn RTRs?
Would Scotch Bright do the same as the sponges?
I still prefer the old blue box locos. Going to try that wheel pick up trick. I will polish the back of the wheel But not the tread. I like the rough wheel tread for the reason of the traction advantage, But it does make them get dirty faster. I like to pull really long trains, 120 average. Them old blue box will pull them all day no problem, Can't kill em. I have proto And Kato ect that can't pull, Just sit And spin. They may be noisier, And not as pretty but they are some real good heavy haulers.
The rough tread on the wheels has no effect on traction. Polish the wheels and you will still be able to pull 120 car trains due to the fact that a smooth wheel on a smooth rail will have more adhesion. The reason the the other brands don't pull as well is because the wheels are made of Nickle Silver or brass and plated over with NS. Both of which are much harder of a metal than the Blue Box wheels. Those are made of "sintered metal" and are quite a bit softer in relative terms.
does anyone have video's showing how to install digitrax sdh166d soundfx into a dcc ready spectrum sd-45 conrail loco? i'm new at the dcc equipment. thanks i'm also using a digitrax dhwhp harness with the sdh166d. help please thanks again terry
hello what european hitch i can install on athearn models thank you very much likes 👍
What was a source for that wire? What is the proper name for the wire...I cannot seem to find it on amazon
How are they holding up for you when it comes to cleaning them after a wile? .I seem to have collected many of these wheels after replacing many them in the past.Lesson learned with the cost ,slippage in the gear with the replacements, and the loss of traction.Agree they are a good wheel ,but like to be cleaned a lot,but they are well made.Nice work on the loco and the video.
+HARPO1ME Stay clean much longer because the wheel tread is no longer pitted. Look at a stock Athearn wheel under magnification and you will see what I mean. I have since also used 1500 wet/dry sandpaper for really bad wheels.
awesome hack for theses engines. would dielectric grease help with contact as well? what are the measurements for the styrene used to reassemble the wheels??? thanks for your time.
NO on the dielectric grease Peter. The grease will attract all the dirt, hair, crud and anything else that comes it's way! The bronze bearing are "self lubricating" and any type of oil based lubrication will not help. I clean those bearing in a degreasing solution in a ultrasonic cleaner and then follow it up with a rinse of 91% alcohol before reassembly.
@@nelsonbeaudry4847 So you are not running any oil at all on your Bearings.
@@GeorgeT6566 no oil. The sintered bearings are self lubricating and oil only saturates them. This is actually detrimental to the electrical path. Adding the extra wire pickups is the best way I have found. I currently only have one active Blue Box GP40-2 modified in this manner. I finally added a keep alive to the Tsunami decoder and have never looked back.
What kind of soldering iron do you use. The ones I use don't seem to last very long. I'm using the Weller pencil soldering iron but the tips wear out very quickly. BTW one of your fly wheel/gear assembly seems slightly askew, won't that cause running problems?
those bearing are pretty crap hence the need of pickups - i have locos with a similar setup and have added pickups as well.
thanks for the video.
+Shelton D'Cruz Welcome
Are these wheels made of compressed iron powder or actual machined metal?
+Steven Michael Sintered Iron Wheels are pressed into shape.
+Nelson Beaudry Yep, and that is what these ones are right?
Sir plz send name of the motor and voltage precaution plz sir request and I m from india
Seems like Dremel makes a drill press for their multitools.
Yep works great
Great Ideas... did enjoy video, BUT! I'm 74 years old, NEVER had a train, then 4 yrs ago, Two of my Grandsons (at 4 yrs old) became interested in chasing the local Spur line and wanted a trainset for Christmas... so I built a 4x4 circle track with a Harbor Freight set. The an 79 year old Uncle (who had been a train "nut" all his life, big in the Local Model RR club passed away and I inherited all of his "Project Trains"... probably 14 Deciles and 12 Steam Engines... only three worked. they are all from the 80s or earlier... (his son and the club got the pick of everything they wanted).
My point is this.. I know NOTHING of the history or models (Blue Box Athearn means Nothing to me) I've got Atlas A-7 that I'm am working on in this video respect, I don't know how to get it apart without breaking it... some I have broken, some I got apart and don't know how to put back together. I can't get much help and youtubes are usually not a good as yours. but I spend HOURS and HOURS searching and youtube doesn't help, taking me on tangents that I didn't ask for... MOST of what I've got I can only identify to the company, and that's about it. I think I've found four disassembly sheets from HOME PAGE but they aren't Exactly what I've got... where can I find your other related videos?
Athearn blue box locos have sintered wheels (powder compressed under high pressure, not cast) and they are very porous. They did that for maximum traction. To avoid these, get replacement wheels from someone else. It's interesting that you DCC guys have such problems with these, since you're using a lot more amperage and the PCB/software must shut off current to the motor if it's too low. I've never had the problem since I don't know what DCC is.
So what is the trick to get solder to "stick" to the metal parts of the truck assembly? I'm following your instructions, but my bronze wires keep popping off when i move them.
Are you putting some rosin past flux on the brass grommet and tinning it with solder first before trying to solder the wire to it?
"paste"
So sorry for the super late reply. I use a paste flux called "NOKORODE®". Yes it's made for plumbing but it is not acid based. P.S. What wattage Iron are you using? I recommend no less than a 30 watt for this. Quick fast heat is the answer.
How can the wire pickups be added to a athearn MP15ac it would help it run so much better.
Does it have the bronze sideplates that the axle stub goes through? I have a fix for that also.
+Nelson Beaudry
Yes it does the side frame pick ups I have been struggling with conductivity loses any help would be great. i enjoy your videos.
You could try putting just a LITTLE bit of dielectric grease in the axle holes. Do not use very much! Dielectric grease is a specially made electrically conductive grease. It's often used on both ends of spark plug wires to improve electrical conductivity, It really helped my old Blue Box Athearn TR5A.
I take an exacto knife and rotate the wheelset in my hand and they come clean
Where can a fellow find the bronze wire?
+Rusty Collier Tichy Train Group.
I use abt the same technique but with a drimal
As has been said, what about 6 axle locos?
Those Athearn sintered wheels are porous and are dirt magnets.
MEC chop nose??
+GP9railfan My 1st kitbash attempt. 25+ years ago. Still runs like a top!
Same problem with 3 axcle Steam locomotive.
Go Maine Central GP-7R !!!
Or you can toss the steal and but the solid nickel wheels from NWSL. They work way better and you dont need to clean as much.