Operating Chase Gondola is resisting rotation. Does anyone have a fix?

[SotaPop]

Late last year just before the holidays I picked up an older (2001) operating chase gondola car for the Christmas layout - Lionel 6-26737 Operating Chasing Santa Gondola.  It had never been run so I was excited to open it up and get it on the layout.

As it rolled around the tree I could here a dragging wheel or two.  Further investigation showed that the larger, under-carriage cog was very stiff and would hardly turn.

Now that the holidays are over, I was taking another look to see why there was such resistance.  With the downward pressure of my hand and rolling it back and further on some track, the figures would rotate, but hook it up behind a locomotive and the wheels still drag ... and we all know that a flat spot on a wheel can break rail and cause a derailment. 

So I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this type of behavior with one of their operating chase gondolas and found a way to get it rotating freely.

Thank you in advance for your comments and suggestions!

[8ntruck]

I believe that the big drive gear in the truck and the pulley that drives the belt with Santa on it are a press fit on the vertical shaft that runs through the pivot point on the truck.  Might be that the press fit is too tight, causing the binding. 

You will have to remove the crates from the gondola to expose top part of the drive mechanism to see what is going on.  Might be a couple of screws through the bottom of the gondola holding the crates in.

Good luck.

[jwse30]

I had one of similar vintage that was so bound up that the car would derail itself as it went down the track.

 

On mine the axle going up into the crates that turns the film the characters are attached to had grease on it from the factory. That grease had dried up and became sticky. I cleaned the grease up and put a light layer of fresh grease on it and it's good as new.  The hardest part is (Gently!!!) prying the bottom gear off of it.

 

Here's a post I made on another forum:

 

I don't know if anyone else here ever runs the animated "chase" gondolas, but I've got 3 of the newer style ones. By newer I mean the type that have a worm on the axle that turns a gear to make the figures move:

 

 

I went to run this one at our modular club's layout a couple of weeks ago. Normally I run everything on my home layout the night before to make sure all the gremlins stay home. That week I didn't, and this car wouldn't run.

 

 

It turned out (bad pun) that the gear drive was bound up so when the worm tried to turn the gear, it turned the truck instead, which caused a derailment. Swapping the axle with one from the other truck allowed me to run the car at the show but without the roadrunner being chased.

 

To fix this car, I popped the "boxes" off the car and removed the film from the spools. I removed both axles from the drive truck. Then with a small screwdriver, I gently pried between the carbody and the truck which it turn pried the gear from the driveshaft. After the gear came loose, I pulled the driveshaft up through the floor. There' a spring in there, pay attention as to where it goes . That's when I found the 15 year old grease that was dried up and nice and sticky. I scrubbed the driveshaft with a Scotchbrite pad until it was clean and then added a dad of new grease. I reassembled the car and it works good as new now.

 

I've got a Christmas gondola that was behaving the same way, but it's packed away until next Thanksgiving. It'll get the same treatment when it comes back out. Since the one that is still working fine is only 3 years old, I'm guessing it will need some attention in a few years as well.

 

J White

[SotaPop]

J White - that's exactly what I found yesterday.

I took the crates off, released the film tension and removed the film from the spools.  I found that the driveshaft had a lot of resistance.  I tried oiling the shaft from the top and under the large gear.  I loaded it with a heavy steal weight and pulled it round the layout.  The shaft spun for the most part, but on occasion I could hear the wheels dragging.

So with some force - I pulled on the truck to separate the large gear and truck from the film spool up, inside the gondola.  This gave me a better assess to oiling the driveshaft.  So I oiled it and the pressed things back together.

I gave it another run to find that there is still some resistance which causes the wheels to drag from time to time.

So I'm contemplating some additional approaches:

1) Do like you (J White) and actually remove the shaft completely and grease it up.

2) Load the bottom of the gondola with.22 caliber lead balls to provide enough weight to force the film rotation with the hope that it'll loosen up from being ran around the layout.

3) Remove the driveshaft and gently hone out the driveshaft hole by twisting a drill bit in my fingers to help alleviate the pressure on the driveshaft.

I guess it’s better to be dealing with this now well before St. Nicholas makes his 2016 visit!

 

I appreciate the suggestions and comments.

[8ntruck]

I'd try what Mr. White did.  Remove the shafe, clean it, and re-lube it.

This approach works most of the time on old Lionel equipment that is not working well.

I've got an Acme gondola that the worm gear is skipping teeth on the big drive gear.  Maybe I'd ought to open it up and see if there is some sort of lube issue going on.