You should NOT be trying to replace the whole smoke unit, there's no reason to! Simple replace the noisy motor.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:You should NOT be trying to replace the whole smoke unit, there's no reason to! Simple replace the noisy motor.
Yep, I see that now. I saw in another post that you suggested MTH BE-0000041, but that search produces a no results on the MTH parts website. Any idea if they have changed that or another one fits better?
Leave the dash out, they're not bright enough to deal with that. 
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@BillYo414 posted:Well I won the bowling game between the friends tonight and I came home and opened it up. It's got some weight to it! It's a good looking engine. It pulled a very heavy train with no trouble. Here it is solo:
The smoke unit is loud though:
So I took the shell off to see if anything was out of the ordinary:
I was expected the impeller was rubbing on something or the motor was touching a die cast section. I didn't find either of those things. I'm guessing that the smoke unit being screwed to the shell just amplifies the motor vibration:
It is interesting how they decided to screw the smoke unit to the shell instead of mounting it to the body somehow. I haven't taken apart any modern locomotives but this was interesting to me.
This thing creeps too. Speed step 1 is no problem at all, even with a load behind it. I'm very impressed. The gears make a bit of ruckus when you start going fast. I put some multipurpose grease on the gears with the hope that getting some hours on this locomotive will quiet the gears and help them mesh better.
The smoke was finicky at first. I'm not sure if I didn't add enough fluid at first or what but I checked the batting when I had the shell off to see if I burned it up. It looks good so I added fluid with the unit apart and then reassembled it (oiled the impeller motor too). The locomotive smoked well after that. So I'm not sure what the deal is.
I would love to convert it to a fixed pilot. I also want to design a cab interior to be 3D printed to cover up that fly wheel in the cab. You can't see it unless you get down to the window and look so it's not a big deal.
Overall, I'm very happy with this locomotive. It looks great, sounds great, runs great!
I liked yours so much that I got one of my own (a Southern, even!). Just arrived today. Interestingly, my smoke unit was very quiet, only a minimal hum (unlike that GP7 that was noisy as heck). BUT, I did have the same problem with it being finicky at first and not wanting to smoke. But I got it resolved, smokes pretty well now. Love the engine!!
I wonder what the heck makes them hesitant to smoke. Is it as simple as low fluid?
I have to figure out how to replace the thermostat and temperature sensor in my car Saturday. If it goes well, I'm going to hunt for a new motor for the RS3. Mostly so that we have a number in the topic for anybody that wants to replace it. I don't even notice it now unless I listen for it. Even still, I plan to replace it. Just not high on the priority list. I'm trying to get the measurements so I can buy my backdrop and get my layout started!
EDIT: I spent the last two days running this RS3 by the way. I mostly was rearranging cars on my test layout and I just really love how it creeps along in yard situations. I hope it performs equally well on the mainline. It does seem to have a little more gear noise at higher speeds but I'm hoping grease and wearing-in the gears at higher speeds will help that.
@BillYo414 posted:I wonder what the heck makes them hesitant to smoke. Is it as simple as low fluid?
I have to figure out how to replace the thermostat and temperature sensor in my car Saturday. If it goes well, I'm going to hunt for a new motor for the RS3. Mostly so that we have a number in the topic for anybody that wants to replace it. I don't even notice it now unless I listen for it. Even still, I plan to replace it. Just not high on the priority list. I'm trying to get the measurements so I can buy my backdrop and get my layout started!
EDIT: I spent the last two days running this RS3 by the way. I mostly was rearranging cars on my test layout and I just really love how it creeps along in yard situations. I hope it performs equally well on the mainline. It does seem to have a little more gear noise at higher speeds but I'm hoping grease and wearing-in the gears at higher speeds will help that.
Yeah my GP7 had bad gear noise at first too but it seems to have resolved itself through gentle running in each direction, gradually increasing speed.
All my smokers make some fan motor noise.
After I've run them for a bit they seem to break in and get much quieter. I'm thinking these fan motors have a break in period like everything else.
Just my thoughts
Brad
I suspected the gears would quiet down. I haven't been able to run it at higher speeds but it is silent when I run at low speeds.
Hopefully the smoke motor is the same. I'll be getting spares anyway though.
I got my other RS3 today. The smoke unit motor is just about silent on this one. So that's cool. I still haven't had time to look into replacing the noisy motor.
