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I have a MTH spotlight car that has the rotating light.  This work via the coil and a metal round frame that holds the plastic spot.  I have tried to flip the rubber pad to the flat side or the raised side, both vibrate the floor.  The flat side is slow rotation. Raised side is faster rotation.   Is there a suggested lubricant that will make the operation smoother so that it will not vibrate the floor?  

Note, that I just run my trains at Christmas around the tree.  Thus have a floor track of the MTH track.

Thanks,

Bill

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I figured that.  I may try some dry lube so it does not get gunked up.  I think if a lube is oil based it probably will not work right.  The track is on carpet.  This year we upgraded to much more plush carpet. it really has not helped the this one.  The track is quieter though and takes much more speed to get loud.  This car just is noisy.  

I have one of those also, if it looks like this ...

IMG_1348and it can be noisy!

If you park the engine in neutral and just vary the voltage, the rotation speed changes dramatically with track voltage (on mine.) At higher voltages it sounds like metal against metal, and looks like it could fly right off the car. Fortunately my Williams engines don't need much voltage, so no real issue for me.

That said, I haven't tried any cures, but I can think of two things to try:

Normally I try the cheapest thing first, but in this case I would try the easiest thing first. If you have a 2nd rubber ring, stack it on top of the first rubber ring. I would try stacking them both ways, with the two rings stacked flat side to flat side, and then both of them with their little feet facing upward. The increased distance from the coil to the base of the beacon might be just enough to settle things down. Or it may not even rotate any more. Like I said, I haven't tried this.

The other idea is to stick one or two diodes in series with each other and put them in series with the car's coil circuit only. On that car, it's not too hard to get to just the coil wires - if memory serves, you can easily access them under the black plastic engine shell. But before you go the work of cutting wires, soldering and heat shrink, I would first test the solution by placing the car on a short test track, unscrew the bulb and place the diode(s) in series with one of the two track feed wires. Do not use any caps to smooth the half wave DC, or you will get NO vibration. It's possible this solution could work … or kill too much of the vibration since you are now powering the coil with roughly half the voltage, hence this quick and easy test first.

I hope one of those works!

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Well, there's not much that you can do. it's a vibrator on a piece of cast metal that's going to transfer all of that.

I don't have one of those, but getting padding under the track would help a lot. or the feet for the RealTrax. Gargraves track with wooden ties would help some. 

The other thought that I had is to isolate the trucks from the body. A small rubber washer between two metal washers on the truck mount would isolate the car from the truck(track). May need a longer truck screw.

Hardware stores have nice boxes with drawers of that small stuff. A faucet washer may work, but may be too firm.

I always liked how these rotated so smoothly in layout videos. I just assumed that MTH put a motor in there. I bought the MTH log dumper car because it uses a motor instead of solenoid. 

let your McGyver come out!

Last edited by Moonman

Carl, The MTH light car has a solenoid.  If MTH did a motor version, it would probably be ridiculously loud as their aquarium cars.  It would be better if it is was gear driven off the trucks like the "case me" cars that Lionel has. i.e. Gingerbread man being chased by Mrs Clause.  Then it would be supper smooth and go based on the speed of the train.

My son an I made our MTH aquarium car always light via LED and the use the switch if we want the motor to run. MTH factory has the switch turn on both the LED and motor.  

I will try the rubber washers to see if I can get it more isolated to not vibrate so much.  Thanks for the advice.

An not familiar with you MTH car, but if the rubber washer you are talking about looks similar to the Lionel #494 Beacon drive washer pictured below

s-l1600

then the washer should be attached to the rotating light housing with the "feet" facing the vibration mechanism - its the vibration against these feet that power the rotation. On the #494 Beacons, I use a minimal amount of powdered graphite applied to the top of the vibration unit surface. 

spotlight

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Last edited by MED

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