#50 Gang Car Blues

[gottcent]

I have a postwar Lionel #50 gang car that runs beautifully in forward but sputters, stops, and starts in reverse. I suspected a bad ground connection and so cleaned the contacts and bent the grounding spring to make sure it touched the rear contact well. No good. I checked for loose or broken wires but could find none. I ran an ohmmeter between the rear contact and the "power" side of the coil to see if there was trouble in that half of the split winding, but the meter showed zero ohms. Finally, I tried directly applying transformer leads to the power side of the coil and to the rear ground contact. This produced sputtering at first, but then the motor ran fine for a minute or more. As soon as I placed the unit on a track, however, the problem reappeared. Any suggestions will be welcome. Again, it runs perfectly in forward.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

                                                                                     John Gottcent

[Anonymous]

John,

           Is the bearing ball ( part # 50-102) present inside the brushplate where the armature shaft enters?  Without it, the armature will jump and lead to sluggish operation.

[gottcent]

I'm pretty sure it's there, but I'll check. I did use some grease to install it the last time I took the brushplate off--it's possible the grease has hardened somewhat. But would this affect performance in one direction only?

                                                                                      John

[cwburfle]

If the top ball is missing, it will only affect performance in one direction.

Another possibility is plain old wear. Sometimes the back of one of the wheels will rub on the diecast metal chassis when running in one direction. I usually address this by placing one or two 671M-23 washers on the axle (have to remove the wheel first).

[LILarry]

Hi John

I had the same problem

Turned out to be the contact plate assembly part # 50-38

It did not look bad but had a bad connection in it

Changed it and the car runs like new

Hope this helps

                                              Good luck

                                                    Larry

[hrin]

Had this problem once too. Somehow I put the bumper slide on upside down.

[gottcent]

Thanks for all the tips, guys. I'll check into each one and let you know if I get the thing running properly again.

                                                                         John