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I have a couple of MTH PS1 locomotives that I run pretty hard over Christmas. They run fast and hard and smoke like crazy. Now they have more than a few hours on them and they have never once had a problem. 

Tonight I was running the Pennsy 1014. I put it in reverse and two things happened. First it did not move, second I heard the mashing of gears. I then tried forward and it would not move until I gave it a little push but didnt sound right.

No big deal I figured as old as it is maybe I would be lucky and just need fresh grease in the gears if I was lucky. Since I  had never opened this locomotive up I was hoping for any easy fix. At worse I figured I might have to replace some gears. Something I have become pretty good at.

Once I got it open I notice that two screws that hold down a plastic cover and the motor was loose. This is right over the gear case and attached to the motor. Not a big deal open it up check the gears, put new grease in and secure the screws.

Well you could figure it wasn't going to be that simple. The grease looked like new and was not the problem. The gear on the motor and the drive wheel had no wear they were fine. The problem was the casting that the screws were in cracked and fell apart. Because of this the motor will lift up enough and there is the problem.

There are three screws and two near the motor had the broken casting. The issue is it is very thin where the screws tighten down the gear and motor cover. Thus now the screws had nothing to grip.

I came up with a solution that may work. I cleaned the surface of all grease and used JB Weld to fill in what was left of the screw holes in the casting. This is more of a permanent fix if it works. Mainly because it it works I doubt I can take it apart to repair the gears if they would fail.

The bottom line is this engine is probably around 25 years old and if this solution works great if not then if I can't figure something out I have some spare parts.

NOTE there was not enough metal to work with such as tapping or using a longer screw. Another possibility would be to drill the whole way through and use a screw with a nut.

 

 

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That is the plastic motor mount which is good. What is broken is the actual gear housing. The screw holes for the motor mount crumbled. I checked as I thought I could drill straight through but that will not work. So if the J B Weld works then all is good. Not a big deal. I was thinking what might have put pressure on these mounts. I let my 3 year old run these trains. She has a habit of running it full power then hits the red reverse button at full speed. I don't know if this was the issue but it might be likely.

I'm going to let it set up for the next week. I don't think it takes that long for J B Weld but I thought it wouldn't hurt.

Then I will put it through a normal workout to see if it holds. I will update the thread after this then give another update after some extended use.

I will check the thread to see if anyone has any other ideas. For me this appears to be the best.

It's not an expensive locomotive and outdated but up to this point it has done it's job. I also figure I'm pushing the expected life of the PS 1 board. 

I should have taken some photos but didn't think of it at the time.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

The way to go is to coat the screw with wax before you cast the JB-Weld.  When it's all hard, you'll be able to remove the screw.  You can also tap JB-Weld, but you have to have the drill size correct to not put excessive pressure on the material when tapping it.

I once bought a thread repair kit that resembled JBWeld. On an aluminum motorcycle rack I filled the hole with it and screwed the waxy coated screw in and waited until it cured to remove the screw. Worked perfectly.

You could also embed a threaded insert in the JB-Weld and have metal threads, another method.  Maybe just run the waxed screw onto a nut and bury the nut in the repair, when when you remove the screw, you have the nut buried in the JB-Weld and it will provide additional strength for the attachment after everything cures.

Another trick I use to contain JB-Weld is plain packing tape.  Turns out that JB-Weld won't stick at all to the adhesive on the tape, so you can build a shape with tape and fill it with JB-Weld.

Some really good creative advice here.  Many of the suggestions should work, as long as the root cause of the original failure wasn't zinc pest!  I would look over the rest of the drive block carefully for signs of corrosion or disintegration.  Because if it's crumbling you would be wasting your time!

Last edited by Ted S

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