Repower Athearn Blue Box with Kato HM-5?


C

CbrandonB

Member
Hi all,

Has anyone used a Kato HM-5 to repower Athearn Blue Box locos? I've got a set of 4 F7s from the late 80s, early 90s that I'd like to completely revamp and repower, but it bothers me that the repower kits are $60 each, especially since there are 4 of these and quite a few other blue boxes I'd like to repower. I think I might be able to do it for half of that or less with a Kato HM-5, but I don't believe it's as straight forward. Can anyone tell me what they did to use it?

Thanks!

Brandon
 
I've not converted a BB in probably over a decade now, but as I recall the factory motor shafts were larger (2.5mm) vs the Kato (2mm). That means the original fly wheels might not press on. If you get the Kato with its fly wheels, the outside connection is a hollow hex fitting instead of round, so you would need to modify the BB press in to be hex or fabricate a new drive shaft. That is not hard to do. I have a Athearn BB GP-9 running around somewhere that I used piece of a coat hanger with plastic knobs on the ends for a drive shaft. Another option I've done in the past is to drop the fly wheels completely and just use flexible tubing to connect the motor drive shaft to an axle drive shaft of slightly different sizes.

Sorry I am not more help. I used to do a lot more conversion work like this.
 
Thanks for the input! I was thinking I had heard of some fly wheels that would fit on the Kato but allow you to connect the Athearn drive shaft... gonna have to do some more googling when I get some time, unless someone here knows what that is. :)

Brandon
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top