Kato DE10 3 axle bogie gear binding issues...

[GiantRoboJustin]

I have 2 Kato 7011-1 DE10's, and both have rather bad 3 axle bogies. Seems the gears in them like to bind up for some reason. Neither loco has many hours of operation on it.

 

I bought the first one about a year ago, and when I got it, the middle wheels were sitting way lower than the outside ones to the point where it wouldn't sit on the track right. I took that one apart, and the sprung pickups for the middle wheels were bent way down. I bent them back up, put it back together, but it started binding. It looked like the furthest inside wheels were the culprit, so I removed the idler gears for them, making the thing only 8 wheel drive instead of 10, but it ran really smooth after that, so I left it. Eventually thought, the remaining 2 axles decided to start binding as well, and after a lengthy bit of messing with it off and on, I gave up, removed the worm and idler gears, and the motor and made it a dummy engine. 

 

I then ordered my second DE10, thinking the first one I got was a fluke. But when I got it, I found it didn't like to go until I gave it quite a lot of throttle, at which point it would jump to a rather quick speed. I ran this one for a bit, thinking maybe it'd do better after some run in, but it only got worse, until the other day, it just wouldn't go at all. So I took it apart, and found that the motor itself wouldn't go until it was given quite a lot of juice (which is another thing I'm curious to know about, because I just recently got a new NW2 motor that's doing the same thing). Well, the motor in my old DE10 was good, so I swapped it, only to find that the 3 axle bogie on this one had completely locked up as well. So I took that one apart, but couldn't find anything awry except a little dust. so I cleaned and re-assembled and it worked, or so I thought. Now it runs, but binding up again causing the middle wheel to kick down so hard it lifts the whole locomotive up. I'm not quite sure what to do at this point. I could order new ones maybe, but with my luck so far I feel like I'd just have 3 bad trucks instead of just 2, and a hole in my pocket book to match, lol.

 

The 2 axle bogies seem to work fine, so I've thought about just gutting the gears out of the 3 axle one and just running it kinda like some of the older cheapo HO stuff with power pickup wheels on one truck, and drive wheels on the other, but that also feels like nonsense. I paid Kato prices for something that runs like a Kato, not a Tyco, lol

 

Anyways, has anyone else had issues with these and/or know how to fix them? Any advice would be helpful, thanks!

 

[ATShinkansen]

I’m having the exact same issue with my DE10.  I also couldn’t find anything wrong, although I narrowed it down to the gear train between the inner and center axle.  That spot binds up when turned by hand with no axles installed.

 

l could also use some answers!

[GiantRoboJustin]

I actually wound up removing those 3 idler gears on my newer one and it seems to run good now, but I have this feeling it might be a temporary fix like last time. 

 

I’m wondering if it has to do with the way the axles are clipped into the pickups on this design rather than having the ends of the axles resting in cups like most of their others.