I noticed the sleeve gear on one of the trucks is slipping from holding both sets of teeth. Would gorilla glue or other plastic-safe industrial adhesive work to hold it in place? The sleeve is not cracked and I don’t have the solder gun or wiring tools to replace the whole motor block.
Bill,
What is the Aristo model car or loco you are concerned about?
Thank you,
-Ted
REA/Aristo FA1
Aristo has old and new versions of axle/wheel for the FA1, etc. 2 axle type motor blocks.
The new version has ball bearings and screw on wheels (track power pickup is internal to motor block - no axle tips going into side frames).
If new version, the wheel could be slipping if not sufficiently tight.
For example, a new version is currently listed on ebay, shown below.
-Ted
These are the original trucks, so not ball-bearing. I glued the sleeve to the two points on both wheel and motor shaft. Then the other wheel that was connected to the worm gear has now stopped spinning when powered. At least that one is essentially in neutral compared to the earlier problem where it would drag.
Bill,
I’m not familiar with the Aristo blocks at all. However I believe I understand what you are saying now that Ted has posted pics of the like. Yes, I suspect it is possible for the worm gear to slip on the axle. Your solution should work from what I see of the pics Ted posted. I assume the plastic worm gear/sleeve is pressed onto the metal axle which is probably not splined? Is there room to pull a couple of zipties in the middle of either side of the plastic gear pulling it tighter to the metal axle ? Or just heat the plastic then squeeze it tight to the metal axle.
Keep up the good work with getting the kids involved !
Another option is to drill and pin the plastic gear in place, through the shoulders.
REA was the predecessor to Aristocraft, so these are original.
I’d heat only as a last resort, no telling what that old formula plastic will do.
John Caughey said:
I’d heat only as a last resort, no telling what that old formula plastic will do.
Melt, just like certain folks do with a lot of my posts…(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
I think he’s looking for easy fixes John …using his stuff in a classroom for school …he actually started a “wait for it” model train group at school !!! Wish I had that when I was in school.
It’s all good
Well alrighty then, should the glue fix fail, use a file or coarse sand paper to give the axle some tooth if it’s not knurled and reglue. If it is, then the inside of the gear hole should be roughed up for toothiness and reglued.
Thanks Roos, I am aware of his story. I took HO trucks in my pockets to school, I liked compressing the springs as I rolled them inside my desk…(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif) Oh to be 10 again!
Glue, or my favorite, JB Quick, wont hold if the parts are greasy. So I would see if I could pull the axle out of the plastic part, degrease the parts, then dry them real good before roughing up the axle end a bit and reassembling with some JB Quick, making sure to get the wheel assembly into proper gauge.
Umm… the gear and the parts the axles go into is a SINGLE casting… the gear CANNOT spin on the casting since it is one piece.
Does your axle look different (apart from the ball bearings and undamaged gear)
2 things can happen, an axle can spin inside the plastic casting (which may or may not be split)
OR
due to other factors, the gear is ground down/damaged… sounds like that is at least the final situation with your motor block, maybe not the initial problem or cause.
Greg
I understood that the whole plastic assembly is spinning on the axle… and I said to rough or drill the axle …
to quote myself: “, use a file or coarse sand paper to give the axle some tooth”
Yeah, I interpreted it as you did John, but put the caveat in there in case it’s something I have not seen.
I don’t remember what the axles look like when pulled out. Drilling and pinning would absolutely work in my estimation.
On another forum he describes even more and it appears that the teeth may be ground off one of the axles…
Greg
Greg Elmassian said:
Umm… the gear and the parts the axles go into is a SINGLE casting… the gear CANNOT spin on the casting since it is one piece.
Does your axle look different (apart from the ball bearings and undamaged gear)
2 things can happen, an axle can spin inside the plastic casting (which may or may not be split)
OR
due to other factors, the gear is ground down/damaged… sounds like that is at least the final situation with your motor block, maybe not the initial problem or cause.
Greg
Ummm…can you say contradiction ?
John Caughey said:
I understood that the whole plastic assembly is spinning on the axle…
Exactly, as I did John. It appears that adding CA to the ends of the plastic assembly fixed the issue according to his posts. Now if one would take the time to re-read twice before posting as suggested by the experts all would be good.
…(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
I’ll try to clarify the situation.
At this point, these are the first style of blocks Aristo used. Wheels are pinned into the sideframes.
I glued the sleeve gear to the pinions on the one wheel and the motor-shaft, but now the other wheel set and it’s spiral-gear no longer makes a connection to the worm-gear. This is better than the earlier situation as that wheel is in neutral and will spin freely. The earlier issue had the first wheel locked in place and dragging.
I’m still not sure I understand what you are saying.
The old style have the ends of the axles running in bearing blocks in the sideframes, not really “pinned”
Where you say you glued the sleeve gear to the pinions, I assume you glued the metal half axles into the gear casting.
I’m also interpreting the “spiral gear” as the “worm” , but my current point of confusion is why is the worm not engaged to the worm gear? Also it would help to know if this is the fixed axle or the pivoting axle… the fixed axle gear is revealed when you open the motor block, the pivoting axle has it’s own little gearbox enclosure, also fed by a universal joint.
So, which axle is the one that is no longer engaged? is there worm gear damage?
Greg
Greg, thanks for the vocab help to describe the situation better.
The motorblocks on this FA are the old-style with the axles going into the side frame bearing box. This locomotive is dating back to the REA days of Polk’s foray into G scale trains
The sleeve I’m talking about is a plastic cuff with indentations for the pinions on the fixed axle. The shaft from the motor is metal, but the pinons on both motor shaft and wheel shaft are plastic. The cuff that connects them is also plastic. I glued that cuff to the two pinion parts and it is moving when power is supplied again. Before this, it would not rotate at all and was dragging while the other 3 axles were trying to push/pull based on location.
The floating axle then became inoperable as it appeared that the spiral gear at the axle itself had been worn down by the worm-gear on the motor shaft. Unfortunately, and stupidly, on my part, I did not photograph what I’m talking about. This wheel spins freely enough that it isn’t dragging or acting like an anchor when the engine is running.
That failure in the floating axle is common, unfortunately, often when it is subject to overload, like pulling the entire loco.
Do you have traction tires on any wheels? Those can make problems worse, when they “grab” and the loco is stalled for example.
Are the “cuffs” the extended part of the gear casting? I think you say pinons where I would say bushing or bearing.
Is what you are talking about in this picture?
By the way, the gear in the floating axle probably looks like this:
(without the ball bearings)
In the first picture, instead of the brass pinion assembly, mine has a plastic cuff.
There are are no traction tires on this engine.
The second picture is exactly like the floating axle’s gear, only that the teeth are about gone.