lionel 1666E sliding shoe conversion?

[the nitro man]

i'm wanting to convert the sliding shoe pickups on my lionel 1666E to roller pick ups. has anyone done this or have any ideas on what would work for the conversion? the reason for the conversion is simple, if i run this engine after any of my other engines (all have roller pick ups) it will not run at all until i clean the track. i've read several times that other people have had this problem as well using certain types of track. thanks for any advice.

[teledoc]

I am going to presume that it is Postwar.  The Postwar 1666 used a 2026M-4 collector plate with slide shoes, and the Prewar had virtually the same collector plate.  You won't be able to put Rollers onto that plate, and there is no other plate that will work, so you are stuck with Slide Shoes.

I just re-read your post, and the comment that you have to clean the track after running your other Roller pickup locos, in order to run the 1666E.  I think it's time to do a thorough cleaning of all the roller pickups on your other locos, plus a good cleaning of the Wheels, and that should eliminate the Slide Shoe problem.  The locos with the rollers are just dirty enough to put a film on the center rail, requiring you to have to clean it.  

[KRM]

I wonder if you could fit a 224E-90 roller pick up from a 2035 to that motor? The two motors sure look close to the same.

Or a 2036-112 from a 2036? 

[the nitro man]

i have seen that 2038-112 & wondered if it would fit as well. it's a pre war 1666E. the roller pick ups are clean on my other engines, that is why i don't understand why it does it. on tubular track it didn't so this, but it does on the atlas track i have.

[teledoc]

The collector assemblies you are coming up with will not work on that loco.  You say it is Prewar, and believe it or not, there were different motors used during the years of production.  Some motors have the E unit slot right behind the smoke stack, and others will have the E unit slot farther back toward the cab.  Also it depends on how the motor is mounted to the body.  Is it a screw through the top of shell, screws lateral across from side to side.  The only way to convert to Roller Collector assembly is to find a comparable motor (6 wheel arrangement, prewar) that could be fit into your 1666e.  The original part number I gave you was for the Postwar 1666.  The Prewar 1666e takes a 1668-20 collector plate, which is also slide shoe.  The 1668 was a later version of a Loewy Torpedo, which is a whole different story in itself.  The basic shell casting of the 1668 started with the 1688E, 1588 wind-up, and 1668/1668E.  The 1688/88E went through roughly 8 body castings, all different from each other.

[cwburfle]

You might consider putting pickups on the tender, and running a wire to the engine.
I've done that a couple of times.

[the nitro man]

I have thought about that too. i'll either have to do that or modify a collector plate so that roller will fir it & not hit anything. thanks for all of your replies, i was hoping something would be a drop in fit, but it doesn't look like anything is.