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I have a Proto 2000 GP60.
It doesn't run at the same speed as some of my other locos (a bit slower) and has a slightly lower top speed.
I read somewhere that if I swapped out the worm gear with an Athearn one, I could fix that problem.
I have a couple Athearn drives, one bluebox, and the other RTR. Does anyone know if the GP60 needs to be re-wormed or am I just seeing things? Also, how do I take the weight off of the frame with all of the wires going through it?
I have a Proto 2000 GP60.
It doesn't run at the same speed as some of my other locos (a bit slower) and has a slightly lower top speed.
I read somewhere that if I swapped out the worm gear with an Athearn one, I could fix that problem.
I have a couple Athearn drives, one bluebox, and the other RTR. Does anyone know if the GP60 needs to be re-wormed or am I just seeing things? Also, how do I take the weight off of the frame with all of the wires going through it?
OK, silly quesion but if DCC why not just speed match them? or are they not DCC?
Because of a couple reasons.
1. The P2K is slower in general
2. Adjusting the speed curve for every single one of my other locos to match would be a huge pain in the rear end.
If I can fix the loco mechanically, it would be a lot easier than changing the CVs in every single locomotive to match it.
somehow I doubt that just changing the worm gear will fix it. A worm gear is matched in pitch to the spur gear that it drives. If it fits, by definition it won't change the speed. The gear that needs to change is the one that the worm gear drives.
now, I am not DCC but why would you need to reset all the OTHER engines? Just reset the GP60 speed curve to match the others. apologies if i'm missing something obvious....
Some P2k engines have 2x worm gears whereas all other manufacturers (maybe with the exception of Kato) use 1x worm gears.
I can't speed match the P2K unit because at full throttle (max voltage) the gearing (and perhaps the motor although I doubt it since it's an Athearn clone) lowers the top speed.
DCC can't fix the top speed if it's already at max voltage.
I have some P2K's that won't run with each other. The older SD-9's were notorious for this. And changing the worm won't help. As was pointed out, the worm & worm gear are matched to each other in pitch, and using a different pitch in the worm will likely cause wear on the plastic worm gear. Are you still using the factory light board? You could try wiring around it and see if that changes anything. I trashed the factory boards in my SD-9's, early E-9's and PA-1s. Seems there were different boards in each run, and this effected how they ran with each other.
I'm running DCC so theres no board in the loco except for the decoder. The wires in the engine are wired into a plug which doesn't have any resistors or diodes, or anything of the sort so it can't be that.
I used to have a P2K GP30 that ran well with Athearn units. I might just swap the frame out for an athearn one if I can't fix it by re-worming it.
The P2K drive is a clone of the Athearn drive except for the 2x worm gear and the Athearn worm gear should fit in it with no problems.
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