Squeaky LGB Engines!

Unfortunately, in my present location, I have NO room for a larger diameter curvature.

Prototype Note: While eating dinner in our Nashville, TN town home this evening, located less than a mile from one of the branches of the CSX mainline WYE, we heard a train actually SQUEALING  through the tight curvature of that trackage in spite of the rail greaser! Never, never say it is not prototypical! LOL!

PS: I do NOT presently have, nor do I plan to install, a rail greaser on my layout! LOL!

Oh, and the A Unit drive wheels have about less than an eighth of an inch lateral motion travel.

Only squeeking I ever had out of my LGB stuff was when track skates or the carbon brushes that rub the back of the wheels got a sharp edge to them and started making noise.  Very annoying when they run overhead around ones living room  Conversion to onboard battery power eliminated all of the power pickups, so that issue went away years ago. AD

Battery power not an option for me. May have to remove contact sliders! :-(

I have decided to remove ALL eight contact sliders on the two A units, which I believe are the cause of the squeaking. The F-7 wheel base on the R2  curves is not likely the cause of the problem, plus there is some lateral movement of the well lubricated drive wheels to offset any binding. Stay tuned.

Just downloaded the LGB pdf exploded view parts diagrams for the LGB F-7 A units so I can extract the contact sliders in an informed manner!

Every G gauge engine that I have the sliders just pull out. It becomes more involved when you run battery power because then you want to remove all the power connections to the motor.

Bob: On these A units, there is a short contact strip that connects the spring loaded slider to another strip inside the gearbox. This small strip must be removed before the slider will easily come out, without damaging the spring.

You should be careful with those no doubt that is one way they transferred track power to the motor. Much easier when running battery power you can take them all out

Alas, upon a closer inspection, the removal of the short contact tabs to the sliders proved to be more involved than previously thought as they were more completely integrated into the pickup system, so I abandoned the idea. Just cleaned and lubricated all eight sliders resulting in some reduction in the squeaking sounds.

Hey Art, let us know how you resolve this problem, as I now have a squeaky LGB engine (runs at Christmas only). I could probably start to look into this, but honestly, just not interested in opening this up right now just to look around.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Charlie

Charlie: Will share any revelations or solutions! :-)