Servicing a Standard Gauge Bld-A-Loco

[Anonymous]

Other than replacing the brushes, cleaning the armature and lubricating the assembly, is there anything else that should be done when this motor is apart?

[Anonymous]

Make sure the bearings are not sloppy, both the axle bearings and the armature bearings. The brush side of the armature rides in a hole drilled in a phenolic plate, these wear out sometimes. A piece of brass tubing can be epoxied in for a bearing if necessary (the hardest problem here is to get all of the old oil out of the phenolic.

The pinion and idler gears can get worn also: The gear teeth can become pointed and, on the idlers, the hole in the center will wear to there the gears are sloppy. The idlers can be obtained from MTH (I have tried McCoy's, but the two gears are rarely concentric with each other or the hole that is supposed to be in the center). I usually buy extra idler gears and mix and match to where I get the best fit on the stud on the side frame.

The pick-up rollers should not be sloppy either. The whole roller/bottom plate is available. Not that it is different for locomotives such as the 390E which have the leading and trailing trucks attached to studs on this plate.

A Build-A-Loco motor, properly fitted and in good condition, should be a relatively quiet device.

If you are pulling the wheels to replace them MTH or Bowser have the best profile wheels-much more like original Lionel than the others. R/C car washers make excellent shims to the the gauge exactly right.

Good luck with things and please keep us posted on your progress.