Check the universal joimts on the drive shaft's. Easiest if you can isolate which end the noise is coming from. Could also be a pick up catching on the back of a wheel as the bogie turns on curves. How tight are your curves ?

 

Could also be a cardan shaft touching a wire - this happened in mine.

 

Be sure the spacing on the Wheels are correct and similar. You should be able to see it if one of the Wheels are the problem.
Allso check that the bogie doesnt Catch on to anything and moves freely. If you hold the loco partly on a piece of rail With the rear Wheels and the front Wheels resting on Your hand at low speed,
you can feel if the gearbox have an issue by turning the bogie. Easiest With a helping hand. If you experience louder / more violent clicking while pulling coaches or so, the problem is likely to be in the gears or driveshaft.

I dont have this loco but many times you can not see joints aso. Then it is often good to look and imagene what you think has been done to figure out how to take it apart if you can not find an exploded wiev drawing of Your loco
that tells you what you need. An advice learned the hard way is never to buy used if the item is not nearly as New. I`ve spendt More Money on fixing Things up than it would cost New in two cases.
And never "neg" a seller on ebay if he/she is fair, but reason With the seller and try come to an agreement if you`re not happy.
But try to contact a dealer to see if they know the particular loco if you cant figure it out or get a reply here from someone hwo knows.
Best Regards
JC

 

Thanks for your replies, I run R3 andR4 curves. Excuse my ignorance but what is a cardan shaft ??

I'll have a look at some of your other suggestions and see how I get on

Dave

 

QUOTE (Dave c @ 16 May 2016, 10:49) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>...Also, I was just wondering, if anyone else who has one of these, where you would lubricate as the motor seems to be hidden in the middle of the chassis and a bit hard to get to...
Short answer, don't bother! Heljan use a good Buhler motor in their 'large' diesel and electric traction models. These have self-lubricating bearings which are typically 'good for life'. If a piercing scream is ever heard, that'll be a motor bearing gone dry; that's the time to take action. (I have been running models with similar design can motors for over 25 years with no need yet for a motor bearing lube.)

Good luck on tracing the clicking. If it varies with speed, but the rhythm alters going over points, it could be something dragging on the track - model sandpipes and similar small detail can be the devil for this.

 

QUOTE (Dave c @ 17 May 2016, 00:58) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Thanks for your replies, I run R3 andR4 curves. Excuse my ignorance but what is a cardan shaft ??

I'll have a look at some of your other suggestions and see how I get on

Dave
I'd imagine it would be happy with those curves.

A cardan shaft is the drive shaft or prop shaft as most of us call them on cars and lorries. Your cardan shafts are between each end of the motor going to the gear tower on the bogie. The shafts have half of a cruciform at each end to make a crude universal joint, these engage in a slot in the cups that are fixed at one end into the motor shaft and at the other end to the gearbox input shaft, I'm thinking that this could be the source of the noise. Or as Graham said, a wire could have moved into a position where the shaft catches it sometimes.

I've just had trouble with one of these myself. I've found the easiest way to dismantle and reassemble is to remove the white plugs from their sockets marked DC on the ends of the pcb, pop the gear tower cover off from below with a jewellers type screwdriver so that the worm comes up out of the top and then drop the bogie away from it. You need to be careful that the whole lot doesn't fall apart

You then withdraw the shaft complete through the banjo housing. If you find the trouble and cure it, reassembly is the reverse. I've found that you only need seven hands with the fingers of two of them made from thin rubber.

 

Whilst the cardan shaft is out, consider fitting a small spring (or a bit of sponge) behind it in each cup to keep it centered in the drive cups. It cuts out all that fore-aft movement so common on carden shaft drives and the loco runs quiter as a result.

 

*** Good luck with that... Finding a spring of the correct weight isn't easy and a too-strong spring will do more harm than good as it increases the drive train friction.

The real cause of to and fro movement is lateral slop in the top of the gear towers (worm end bearings). They are easy enough to access with careful disassembly. The correct fix for that is thin shim washers on the shaft ends, leaving the shaft to float as it should.

Richard

 

I am referring to the carden shaft itself. The spring or piece of sponge only acts to keep the shaft stable between the two drive cups.

Not all carden shafts are "perfect", so the less slop the better.

 

See my thread 'Heljan Class 52 Drive Shaft Replacement' for how I reassembled it. Might help if you have to take it apart.

 

Hi JC,

I bought the model 6 or 7 months ago and left + feedback at the time so too late for me to go back to him now. I have another western diesel that has also cost me a few pounds sorting it out, maybe I should take the hint with Westerns but I think you are right that you take a chance buying 2nd hand and as I don't have the skills or knowledge at the moment to take a loco apart and put it back together again, maybe I should stick to buying new.

Hi Hoonsou,

Sadly, I don't have 7 hands, but I do know a man locally that does, so when he has time I shall be dropping the loco off with him for investigation. I had another look yesterday and it seems to make a noise all the time and from one end more than the other, there is quite a bit of oscillation in the cardan shafts so maybe the fault lies there ??

I think if I wasn't working and still building my layout I may take some time to have a look myself, hopefully this time next year I will be retired

Many thanks
Dave

 

Hi Dave. I didn`t mean you should not buy 2nd hand but you need to (or it`s advisable) be carefull regarding the condition of what you`re buying. Dont be afraid to ask the seller questions on the item before buying.
I bought two steamers I thought was good that made some work, and a RE460 I thought was good that arrived in MINT condition (20 years old rare model).
So you can never be sure of the outcome. And the top rated seller thing is bull, because you need to sell a lot to get that rating. To buy an item from a seller that have 95% and 20 sales should be safe.
It can of course be the cardanshaft on Your model. If Your friend cant find the problem you might get help from a local shop or Club?
Regards JC

 

The guy I use I've used before and he is fully booked till into June, he does it as a business so I'm pretty confident he should be able to fix it.

I love Westerns, I've just asked my wife how many is it acceptable to have on one layout lol

Dave

 

QUOTE (Dave c @ 22 May 2016, 01:55) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>The guy I use I've used before and he is fully booked till into June, he does it as a business so I'm pretty confident he should be able to fix it.

I love Westerns, I've just asked my wife how many is it acceptable to have on one layout lol

Dave
If it's a roundy roundy like mine, then you can probably say you've got enough when you can't fit another one between the first and last ones on the layout.

Ps: Please don't tell your wife who said that.