Reply to "Is it possible to add Traction Tires..."

@ADCX Rob posted:

If you can source just the 222-107 grooved wheels, no cannibalization would be needed.

Also, a 8010-123 grooved wheel can be used as well with the gear section machined/ground off, and blackened to match as desired.

@ADCX Rob, let me take you back a bit to this post you made. My question is this: do the 222-107 undercut plain wheels, and the 8010-122 plain w/o gear wheels, and the 8010-123 undercut gear wheels all have the same inside (axle) diameter?

I’m working on an ALCO 213 project that needs some 222-107 grooved wheels, but they are not to be had anywhere. This little engine had a motor transplant in a previous life and received a 200 series Pullmor motor with two driven axles, but no traction tires or undercut wheels.

So, I found and bought some 8010-122B (the B is for blackened, per the seller) wheels. Now, these wheels are supposed to be just plain, grey, MPC era Zamac non-undercut wheels according to Lionel, and would be used opposite an 8010-123 grey, MPC era, Zamac, undercut gear wheel. But I could see in the ad photos that they were indeed blackened, and that they had traction tire grooves, or undercuts. So I bought a few to give them a try. When they arrived, I found they were blackened, and they did have the appropriate undercut, and they appeared to be new; no spline grooves on the inside diameter and no wheel wear marks.

The problem is the inside diameter is too large. The wheels wobble loosely and fall right off the splined end of the axle.

When it comes to PW diesel engines, I (perhaps naively) thought Lionel made only three different diameter axles, one was for diesels with Magnetraction (stainless steel), one for diesels with no Magnetraction (steel) and one (skinny steel) for freight cars. Further, I thought that the splined axle ends on the first two (Magnetraction and non-Magnetraction) had the same diameter - that would be logical to minimize wheel inventory..

Hence my question, do the 222-107 wheels and the 8010-122 (and 8010-123) wheels all have the same inside (axle) diameter? Or did I buy some of Lionel’s PW mistakes that found their way into the retail world?

George