Grinding noise in old Athearn Bluebox PA units

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David Collins
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Grinding noise in old Athearn Bluebox PA units

Unread post by David Collins »

My dad recently purchased 2 Athearn Blue-Box DCC Nickel Plate Road A and B PA units from EBay, both units have DCC and the B unit has sound, we just tested them for the first time and the A-unit is making a rubbing noise when it comes into curves and stalls out, does anyone have any ideas as to why?
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KVERBERK
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Re: Grinding noise in old Athearn Bluebox PA units

Unread post by KVERBERK »

I'm not sure why its grinding, but the athearn blue box units are pretty easy to take the shell of and run with out the shell. If you haven't tried that already it might be a good place to start. Also there is not much in there as far as weights go so you can see whats going on fairly well.
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Trainman2223
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Re: Grinding noise in old Athearn Bluebox PA units

Unread post by Trainman2223 »

I second that.....Good starting point =Take the shell off and give it a spin, look for anything that might be binding the drive, also look for loose wires and bad solder joints.

"rubbing noise when it comes into curves and stalls out" sounds like something is shorting out, if it only happens on curves make sure you test it on a curve to verify the issue, prev owner may have mickey moused the DCC install. :?

Grinding noise could be a lack of lube (labelle 107 for drive shafts,labelle 106 for the gears) also a dirty motor can buzz or "grind"
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