Fuzz Ball Attacks Kato RS-2

[conrad]

Today, while cycling through my Conrail locos with 5 minute runs my RS-2 started clicking.  It's a 20 year old Kato that was my first (and only) paint job.  Right away I thought of the split gear problem.  You know, a plastic gear on the metal truck shaft splits throwing the gear pitch out of whack causing click, click, click.

I took off the shell, loosened the frame screws and dropped both trucks.  One truck rolled free but the other was "frozen".  A close inspection revealed no split gears.  Instead it was a compacted fuzz ball wedged down in one tooth root of the small gear attached to the worm gear.  I picked it out and the truck rolled freely.

Reassembled and no more clicking.

This is a first for me: fuzz ball attacks RS-2.

Conrad

[peteski]

LOL Conrad - good fix and funny write-up!
This locos do not have split gear problem because he axle gear and axle is single piece of molded plastic.  The plastic axle is then inserted into the short hollow axles in the wheels.  And the idler gears will not split because there is no stress on them.

Debris sticking between gear's teeth is a problem in some of the newer Kato trucks which use very fine pitch teeth, but the older, more coarse gears, are fairly immune to the problem (except for those occasional hairballs). 

[randgust]

Whew!  For a minute there I thought I'd see a photo of a cat named Fuzz Ball......

[up1950s]

Whew!  For a minute there I thought I'd see a photo of a cat named Fuzz Ball......

I was wishing for that .

[CRL]

I’m sure a cat was involved in some manner.
🐈 🐈 🐈‍⬛