Salty Question

[Super]

I assume then that its the metal shaft wobbling that makes the noise as the gears are tight to it or do you think its from the gear on gear. Hmmm, wonder if a thin neoprene washer on the shaft between the housing and the gears would help when spreading the gears against it. Quick...Watson, There is an experiment afoot!

I'd recommend a bit of silicone grease in the gearbox, it would deaden the noise and if there is any loose gears at least it should reduce wear and tear that would exacerbate the problem

[Super]

Grease doesn't seem to have any affect at all that is what is so strange about it.

The reason I brought this Salt subject up is that I received a red TM Salty in the mail the other day which was quite noisy and saw a new boxed one listed in the Japan Auctions and I became curious.


You are right Luke, your memory is better than mine as I don't remember which drive I removed it from. It could very well have been a Luke as all I remember is Ucwepn stating that there were 3 trains than had quieter TM flat drives but off the top of my head I only remember the yellow Rheanas but I am not sure whos motor I used.

Hey super, I just did some post digging....

http://www.blueplastictracks.com/showthr...ight=Polar

I had the same problem with a flat drive on a Trackmaster Hiro (converted to Polar Express). I also upgraded its motor figuring that would quiet it down but it only made it worse so I figured the noise was coming from the gearing itself. So After posting the problem HERE I scraped the whole drive and installed one from a new Luke. Now it is very quiet even with an upgraded Power Dash motor.

So if you have a flat drive, you can swap it for the new flat drives which are much quieter,

[Super]

LOL...I had found that thread earlier today and posted a link about it in the wrong thread (Clones) Sorry you had to go out of your way to find it.

While looking another thread I discovered the thread where I talk about Ucwepns picks for quieter TM flat drives, Paxton, Luke and Yellow Rheneas http://www.blueplastictracks.com/showthread.php?tid=107

In theory your suggestion would be perfect but there are different housings for some different flat drives. For example some flat drives have the front wheels in the motor housing and some split front wheel trains have a housing that have spaces that go over the split axles. This is what happened with me swapping the drive from a Luke into the Hiro one. I had to modify the front of the motor housing to fit over the front axle and also modify the tab that holds the front down. In addition there are also flat drives that have smaller openings for the gear that drive the rear axle. They also have to be modified to receive the axle gear.