Help with/thoughts on growling Dreyfuss? - Solved.

I'll give it a try. First, is the motor a permanent magnet field or can DC motor? It probably is but some wound field motors will make noise. Two, Take the motor off and turn the drive train by hand and make sure it turns smoothly. Trace down and fix any rough spots. Finally, check for anything loose that may be vibrating and causing the noise. If all this checks out some motors are just noisy, even DC ones.

 

If all else fails there is a trick that you can use that may help locate the source of the trouble. Get yourself a piece of small diameter tubing about 1/4 inch in diameter and about 2 feet long. Set the engine up so you can run it on your work bench and get it to run so it is making the noise. Now hold one end of the tube to your ear and use the other end to search for the source of the noise like a stethoscope.

 

Al

If this engine has EOB you have found your problem. EOB has always had this groan. Not a whole lot you can do about it either. I have about a dozen engines with EOB and all do it, some more then others. By the way I still think EOB is the best upgrade choice that we have been offered. To bad we can't get it any more. BF

He's talking ERR Cruise Commander, and I have that installed on at least six locomotives here, none of them make any gear sounds like this.

 

If it's rough gears, one cure I've seen mentioned is using jeweler's rouge or other polishing compound like lube and run the locomotive to set the gears and polish any high spots.  I've never tried it, but I've seen two different people swear by the technique.

gunrunnerjohn, I see that now, when I first read his post it appeared to me that he had 2 engines. The post is chopped up pretty bad IMHO.

 

I wonder if he called Ken at electric Railroad? BF

It is indeed a chopped-up post; hard to read.

Thanks; the jewelers rouge will probably be what I will try - after a proper
break-in to see if it just "wears away".

It's ERR; no EOB. The motor is a modern DC can (not Pittman, I believe. I did not notice
when I had the lid off during upgrade to double check who was hot and
who was common).

The sound is definitely mechanical; you can even feel if you put your hand on the loco
at 20 smph or so.

It is really just an extreme example of a common feature of Asian (not a dig) brass
locos. Japanese brass locos in the 1960's sometimes were so bad that they were
virtually un-runnable. Some were excellent, though. My Samhongsa (Williams)
Niagara makes a small version of the same noise.

The suggestion abut using the small tubing to locate the sound was a real flashback
for me. I can recall using a rod or tube as a young man to locate just where that
valve tappet noise (or other noise) was coming from on my car's engine. Nostalgic!

Thanks for the thoughts. I may call Weaver, as they are typically helpful and knowledgeable.
I really know what the problem is; looking for a fix approach.

Thanks.

I can't imagine that the Cruise Commander is the root of this issue, or it would be happening to a lot of us.  The fact that it only happens going one direction says to me it's a gear train issue.

 

FWIW, I had an MTH Genesis that had a similar issue.  I ended up swapping the motors between the two trucks and shimming one of them a bit.  I finally got it running smoothly in both directions.

Just an FYI:

Fixed the growling Dreyfuss; the shimming suggestion was, thankfully, just right.
The noise was coming from the first U-joint, next to the motor, not the gearbox. This
is good. I shimmed and straightened the motor - loose in its grommets on the mount - with styrene, and, bam - noise 90% gone. A little is fine; it's a machine. Glad that it wasn't the gearbox. The mounting screws were tight; the grommets were too big or loose with
age (20-year-old loco).

Oh, two of the best things you can have is a portable bench test track and a set of engine test rollers. After I took off the boiler and ran the loco on the bench, it took about 10 seconds to
find the problem, 2 minutes to find, shape and install the right shim, and another minute to test it well in both directions (on the bench).

I've been tempted to get a set of the rollers, they do look useful.

Hey, way to go.  That's good to hear, and the suggestion about the rollers hits home.