Does this thrust bearing sit up in the hole where the armature shaft sits in the brush plate? My gang car struggles in forward with the transformer turned way up and a lot of sparking from the track pickup. I get nothing at all in reverse. I just rebuilt the whole thing with new armature, brushes & springs, and thorough cleaning and re-lube. It's wired properly and I just can't figure out why it barely runs. I've rebuilt a lot of post war engines successfully, but this thing is throwing me for a loop.
The most common problem with gang cars is a missing ball bearing. There is a small ball bearing that goes into the armature shaft hole in the brushplate. They often fall out and are lost. This ball bearing acts as a thrust bearing in one direction. As far as the slide hanging up: I find this is caused by:
1 - past lubrication of the slide has gotten gummy
clean out all the old lubrication.
2 - someone increased the tension on the slide contacts
adjust the tension
They have a neutral position, when the bumper hits soft, or not all of the way, they'll hang up.
Unless, you already know about the half (neutral} position, then something else is wrong.
Unfortunately, I am unable to give you any help.
Ralph
When you say you "lubed" them, what exactly do you mean? I was lubing mine just by putting a drop of oil on the upper bearing, till it started showing symptoms similar to the ones you describe. The cure was to pull the armature altogether, lube the worm gear with grease and put a couple of drops of automotive oil on the thrust bearings. It was oiling the thrust bearings that finally did the trick for me. Runs like new, now.
I'm having a similar issue with my #50 gang car. I have found that the the bumper doesn't completely lock in one direction causing it to vibrate and lose contact while running. Not sure if it's the same problem you're having but worth looking into. I haven't found a solution for this yet.
Hi, I have two Lionel # 50 gang cars and both have the same problem, they run smoth and strong in one direction but wen they change direction they spit and sputter and hardly move. I cleaned them, installed new brushes and springs, lubed them, and rewired one of them. this helped them run even better in one direction but in the other direction they don't go. Has anyone else ran into this? any help will be greatly appriciated. Thanks!
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