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 Posted - April 16 2017 : 9:29:54 PM
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Got introduced to a new fella in my area, he's interested in joining my train club. I went over to his house to get his small 4x6 layout going he got from a friend for free. Has two mains, one worked, the other has a short. Anyway, I tested his engines, and offered to fix some of the bad ones.
One is this Model Power F7 Santa Fe, dual drive, that didn't move, but made noise. Turns out all FOUR of the universal joints had cracked, so none were usable.  I tried using some generic replacements but the shaft on the model power is smaller than 2mm apparently. So thinking about it, I bought some hard line vacuum tubing from the auto parts store, has a bit of flex to it. Tonight, I took apart the engine, removed both slipping sets of universals, and cut the tubing to fit. TIGHT fit, which is good.  Fired it up, and it ran good backwards, but not forwards easily. I took apart both trucks, and found the gears were swapped ( I had done that a few weeks ago, I'd forgotten ), to bypass one slipping yoke. So I turned them back around, reassembled, and now it runs well backwards and forwards. SHOULD have enough play to negotiate 18" radius ( I hope). Couldn't find any MP parts online, at least not the universal joints. At least he has a running engine again.  Here's a picture of the tubing installed :
Have used small R/C airplane gas line tubing before, but even that was too big for these shafts, so I figued I'd try the hard vacuum line GM uses, it has some flex, apparently enough. We'll see how it negotiates turns. :) Might want to get some for your repair box, in case you can't find the right universal joints.
Jerry in VA
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Country:  USA ~
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Posted - April 16 2017 : 11:00:16 PM
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Keep us posted on how it works in curves. Just thinking about it, I would think the length of the tubing would have to change as the trucks swivel. It'd be interesting to know if that's really the problem I would think it would be.
Carpe Manana!
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Last Visit: August 24 2025
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