N de M Centipede from Lionel Fan Noise

Send it back

If it is defective contact Lionel for a RA.

Bummer

 

Doug

Eliot  I told you not to buy it from him

A number of the newer products have defective fan motors.  I'm sure my two U-boats are going to need a new fan motor at some point, they're louder than other engines as well.  It's such a PITA to send them back for a fan motor, I'll probably just replace them myself.

I do believe a louder than typical fan was a common complaint with the original centipedes, not sure if a fix was found

Eliot, have you checked that there aren't any jumping beans trapped under the body shell? If there are any, they could be making quite a lot of noise as they bounce around. 

Eliot, They make this stuff nowadays called "oil". Apply it sparingly under the fan castings and the noise will quiet down. It is quite cheery to see how helpful everyone here has been? Mike

Mike,

 

Many thanks.

This new stuff called oil, is that a Jewish invention?

Like "Oil vay?"

 

To everyone,

I don't know if you're recommendations will work, but you all gave me a good laugh.

I have a doll for each of you that is a very good resemblance. Tell me if, at about 2PM today, you feel a pain in the bottom.

 

 

 

Ellybear

Eliot:   A picture of that Baldwin Beauty would be nice. 

Mike CT

Hi Eliot,

 

Please can you not use such a large pin next time? I still can't sit down without wincing. 

Oil vay? Oy Vay!!!!

Yeah, Mikado, most of the replies here have been real d**n useful rays of sunshine.

Very helpful, I'm sure.

 

Nice to know that the N de M Centipede was actually produced; I expected so few orders

for that road name, because....well, anyway. I'll be calling for one in a couple of days, I imagine. I had no intention of ever buying one unless they came out in the Mexican scheme. It will look nice with my Weaver FA-2 that I painted in N de M a few years ago. (Talk about rare decals! Thank goodness for online auctions).

 

Oh, and yeah, I'm sure that "gutting out" (see somewhere above) a beautiful loco like that because of fan noise, and replacing the electronics with Williams honk-honk, zoom-zoom, whee-whee stuff would make a lot of sense. Why not put a single Pullmor in it

with a buzzing e-unit? Now there's a prize idea!

 

"Oil vey"? Priceless.

 

 

Hey Elliot, doesn't this post violate the agreement you had with Mike?

Eliot- all the fan motors I have seen are loud. Tis the nature of the beast. That strange earl stuff never works. Just gums everything else up

"Hey Elliot, doesn't this post violate the agreement you had with Mike?"

                               .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . cbojanower

Noooooooooooooooooo way. This is not a complaint. Merely an inquiry into the Hadron Collider process. It is a Quark or a Nutrino that is causing the fan motor noise. Mike knows all about this and his quick thinking ("Use oil") is likely to result in discovery of the God Particle, freeing us from needing UPS or FedEx for shipments in the future. We will simply beam them over to Ohio, where Robbie the Robot will, in conjunction with ET, deal with the quality control issue.

BTW Chris, I have a doll that looks just like you.

BTW #2: The oil has reduced the noise . . . . .  um  . . . . . a little.

Scrappy

Be nice Elliot, my wife is still a derby skater, she can hip check you all the way across the Orange Hall and not tear her fishnets

Well, sorry to lower the tone of this conversation but:

 

1. I have a pair of the Vision Centipedes; on one there was no fan noise and on the other it was loud enough to drown out the Legacy sound effects. After trying various things and doing some guessing, I frankly did not believe the advice posted elsewhere on the forum to oil the fan spindles or that this was inevitable "metal on metal" mechanical noise. After all, not all reviews of this model reported the fan noise issue and I thought the problem might be bad assembly at the factory or a bad batch of fan drive units.

 

2.  Anyway, as I was plenty p*ssed off at this defect in Lionel's most expensive diesel ever, I took the thing apart and got a replacement fan assembly and motor to experiment with. I found that the gears are plastic, not metal, and the assembly comprises several of them in a two part metal sleeve.  This is the replacement part:

 

 

The round hole shown in the lower photo is where the flywheel-equipped DC motor that drives the fans engages with the gears in the assembly. This is the motor:

 

 

After I tried oiling/greasing everything to get rid of the noise, and altering the alignment of the gears in the assembly, all to no effect, I thought that the problem might be with the alignment of the gear on the motor with the gear it engages in the assembly. 

 

That alignment depends on how the two mounts on the bottom of the motor are screwed into their fixings. First I bent the mounts to make the motor gear engage the other at an angle of about 10 degrees and, hey presto, noise gone. I then loosened the mount screws and that produced the same result.

 

Someone else whose views we all respect has said that after a running-in period the fan noise can be expected to reduce. I'm sure that's right but I expect or keep hoping that all Vision Line models work perfectly out of the box (as my GE Hybrid and the CP version did). I lost all patience after about 20 minutes running time and the above was my solution.

 

 Good thing Harvey has his WBB hat and T-shirt on in his profile pic in support of his reliable good running trains.

Even if that is true, what's the point?  Some of us actually really like the whistles and bells of the Legacy and PS2/3 locomotives.  I have TMCC locomotives that run like a Swiss Watch that are from the 90's, so I'm not worried that suddenly they'll all stop running.  I'll have a lot more fun and enjoyment from mine that I would if I replaced them with the basic Williams running gear.

I have the N de M Centipede.  I was surprised and very happy that it made it into production and I love it!  The fans are a bit noisy.  I too tried to oil them, and it really did not help.  The noise is a nuisance, but I can live with it.

 

In regard to low tech old school engines outlasting the newer products with all the bells and whistles.....I purchase Lionel engines as toys to be played with and enjoyed by me right now.  They are not heirlooms to me.  If they don't have parts for mine in 2063, it really won't bother me, because I hope to be playing with even more advanced and fun toys then!  Many people are selling older TMCC engines to upgrade to the same engine in Legacy.  Many of us enjoy the features made possible with advanced components.  It is a big enough hobby for everyone.  Buy whatever toys you want for whatever reason you want, but don't tell others how they should enjoy the hobby or that they are enjoying it the wrong way.  There is way to much of that on this forum.

Hancock52,

Many thanks, I may try that.

eliot

Elliot, can you do me a favor

 

Do the fan noises occur with a sort of Spanish accent?

Eliot,

It's Monday night and I'm reading about you from the Greenberg Edison show as I predicted? Steve and I were hoping you would stop and spread some of that "cheer" and could have test-run your centipede.

Take care and I'll see you at York.

Scrapiron,

 

If you do try my fix, remember that the motor and assembly have to be tested fan side up as they fit into the body shell. If you try running the assembly with the fans facing down and the motor and flywheel facing up, there will be no noise for some reason. It was this that made me think at first that the problem was inside the gear assembly and I tried putting a spacer on one of the gears to keep it from touching the base of the assembly. This proved impractical and it was as a result that I tried altering the alignment of the drive gear (if that's the right term) and then how tightly it was screwed to the assembly. This is real trial and error but it would account for why some people have the noise issue and some don't.