MTH Crossing gate gear help

Ouch!  Can't help you on this quadrant gear problem.  But....

When I read your thread title, my first thought was regarding the small drive gear pressed directly onto the drive motor shaft.  By far and away that's been the biggest problem I've encountered on these gates....the common splitting-white-gear (nylon) problem that has plagued this accessory and HO drive trains among many manufacturers for literally dozens of years.

Northwest Short Line...the gear folks...has a replacement for this 10-tooth drive gear...P/N 37410-6, in brass.  You will have to carefully ream the gear hole a tad....I measure the motor shaft with a micrometer, then re-bore the gear hole stepping through a couple numbered drill bits to achieve a light press fit (also have a very, very fine tapered, small diameter jewelers file that I later learned to work as well.)  Make a note of the position of the old white gear on the motor shaft at the time you remove it....then press the new gear to the same position.

Actually, I acquired a bunch of derelict 11012 gates from auction.  This motor gear swap has salvaged about 2/3 of the gates.  The major balance of the derelict gates had been dinked with to death with their limit screws/assembly.  Most of those I stripped all of the gate mechanism out of  and rebuilt (easy job) the remainder into crossing flashers, only.

But, I haven't yet encountered a chewed quadrant gear as you show in your photos.  Very strange.  

Call Midge.  See what she can do for you.

KD

99% sure MTH does not have that gear for separate sale.  I believe they do have an improved spur gear for the motor.  I have a few non-working gates that you can have for the cost shipping or I can just pull the gear.

I contacted MTH and they did not have the gates in stock. I purchased a set at a show last year. One worked fine the other lights up as soon as you apply power but the gate does not go down. They would not take it back for repair because they did not have parts. Someone was supposed to get back to me but I never heard again so I gave up. Having 1 working gate don't help much.

That MTH has a new motor drive gear is news to me.  I'll ask our (LHS) MTH tech to confirm this....I'm ready for a few more gears for additional derelict gates I've since received.  

If you bought your set on the secondary market, but assuming MTH has improved this one gear on their new production, how would you know what you have?  The product part number has never changed, nor is there a 'revision number' or mfr's date stamp anywhere to identify what generation of product changes may have been included.  It's the same frustration with Lionel's FasTrack Gates & Flashers.....early production had issues of vulnerability to play/handling, but the product number stayed the same after they made improvements.  On the secondary market, it's like shooting craps to buy a set.  Failure of the little white motor drive gear is almost a 99% certainty over time.  And final failure might not happen until the gate is actuated a couple times inducing final stress to the gear to crack.  Maddening.......how well I know.

And, yet, when they work, they're really neat, an eye-catcher.......so I repair and move on.  BTW, all of the gates I've repaired with the NWSL brass gear continue to work, but I'll admit the layout's seen a lot less operation of late......reasons too numerous to mention here.

BTW, another thing I do when installing these is to either connect the 5 wires to a barrier terminal strip for easy removal, or use an in-line connector (I use the TCS 1309 6-pin connector pair, ignoring the gray wire).  Makes it a lot easier to get this accessory off the layout and back to the bench.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.....re that quadrant gear.  I'm adding it to my list of 30-11012 questions for the MTH Parts booth at April York.  

Lastly, I'll check my verified true junkers to see if I can find a decent quadrant gear or two to be recovered.

KD

Hi all.  Thanks for the replies.  I will gladly pay shipping on any junk gates that I may harvest parts off of. Shoot me an email with costs and I'll paypal you the money.  Thanks!

Shoot me an email. I don't like posting my address on a forum, but you can find it in the TCA directory.

Jon, sorry to sound silly, what is the TCA directory? Thanks. 

Rob 

TCA Directory (Train Collectors Association Members Directory):

http://tcamembers.org/about/directory/index.shtml

Note, I believe you must be a member to login and actually view the directory.

  OGRF also works so you also have to be an OGRF member to view an ogrf profile. There is a spot in your profiles to list one if you choose to. 

The dues makes a little difference, but it is still a "public list"..