# REA FA-1 lurching



## Brandon (Jul 6, 2011)

I recently acquired my first G scale locomotive, a REA (Pre Aristocraft named) FA-1. I know nothing about the past of it but it has no visual blemishes and the wheels look unused. Years ago I did HO and fired up my MRC Tech II 2500 to test the train engine out. The engine runes at various speeds but every 6 inches or so it repeats a little blurp in speed (kind of lurch like). My first guess would be old lube??? Knowing very little about servicing I googled a bit and found this write up (Aristo Craft & REA Brick Fix & Tips) which goes over servicing the motors. 

Tonight I stopped by the local hobby store to pick up some heavy and light lube but a guy there quickly said to not get either but to instead use transmission fluid for all lubing. He said it's slightly conductive, more liquid when wet and more solid when cold/not being run. 


Has anyone heard of transmission fluid being used exclusively or at all? They had a couple tubes of lube but it looked like it was mainly generic lubes and maybe more made for rc cars. 


Am I on the right track to tracking down and solving this lurching issue? 

Thanks.


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## Brandon (Jul 6, 2011)

PS. If I give the engine a little power (enough to rotate the wheels) and then lift either the front truck or rear truck up off the track both trucks while in the air still lurch/hesitate a little about every full rotation.


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## bottino (Feb 7, 2008)

Usually Aristo motor blocks are sealed and need no lubing. I would check to be sure that your wheels and track is clean. This is a lighter engine, and I have found that they tend to do this if the wheels are dirty. ALso, check the headlight, to see if it flickers at all when this lurching occurs. If it flickers this would also indicate maybe some interruption in contact with the rails. All this assumes that you are using track power. 
Paul


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## Westcott (Feb 17, 2009)

Another possibility is that the axles are bent, causing the gears to tighten at the high spot, once per revolution.


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## Brandon (Jul 6, 2011)

Headlight doesn't dim or flicker even slightly... Track is brand new and I just took some alcohol to the wheels (the wheels looked unused but I did just to be sure they're clean) and it's made no difference. 

Maybe it's in my head but it seems like it's gotten 10%-20% smoother after about 10 minutes of running, but far from ideal. If I lift up either set of trucks I can hear the motors get a little noisier and a little more axle noise at each rotation. A little finger resistance against the train feels like when it gets to that part of the rotation someone is slowly turning the transformer down and up 50% but smoothly (not a hard drop). It also seems like the wheels are now lurching out of sync, and maybe that's why it appears to be running smoother since both trucks aren't lurching at the same time. The front wheels are a little worse than rear wheels. This is an old engine, likely just sat around for 20+ years? Maybe it needs new power blocks, but at $150 a for a set that would have made this buy more expensive than a brand new unit.  Could it be the motors or brushes? Maybe it needs a good spray of electric motor cleaner or is this a bad idea? Or if the block is sealed should one not open and service it? 

For the bent axles, any way to find out if that's the case?


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## Westcott (Feb 17, 2009)

For the bent axles, any way to find out if that's the case? 

Look to see if the wheels wobble as they rotate under power.


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## Brandon (Jul 6, 2011)

Looks like the front truck, front axle, left wheel has a Very slight wobble. The rear truck wheels that also lurch are perfectly smooth. They also seem to lurch a little more when weight is on them rather than the wheels free spinning in the air.


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

I'd open up the gear boxes and lube it with some white lithium grease. I was advised to do that about 20 years ago. He said that they usually don't have enough lubericant in them and they fail quickly. Mine is still running strong.


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## bottino (Feb 7, 2008)

Hi Jerry, without looking, how do I get into the gearboxes. I should probably do that with mine. They were yellow box units, but that is pretty old I think.
Paul


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## Brandon (Jul 6, 2011)

Posted By bottino on 06 Jul 2011 02:57 PM 
Hi Jerry, without looking, how do I get into the gearboxes. I should probably do that with mine. They were yellow box units, but that is pretty old I think.
Paul 


See my link I posted above, it talks about how to get into the motor blocks for various revisions of the loco.


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Good article Brandon. Mine were REA, so pretty old units.


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## Brandon (Jul 6, 2011)

I have an REA FA-1 manual that talks about how to disassemble the power block and gives info about how to service it and so on as well. If you don't have that and want me to scan pages let me know.


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