Ted S posted:But based on the original post- it sounds like there are a lot of Lionel diesels made in the last 10 years with at least one set of wheels gauged too wide. Putting washers or e-clips on the axle doesn't bring the wheels back into gauge. I'm surprised these things don't bind or derail on switches.
So fans of the washer mod, you're telling me that having one axle gauged wide and the other gauged correctly doesn't affect the operation? Or am I misunderstanding the problem...?
In my experience with a handful of Lionel diesels. "Correctly" assembled models have a "half of a gear width" of play, meaning the axle will slide over about half of the gear. This extra play obviously makes the loco of tighter 3 rail track arrangments.
Having said that, one of the previous posters mentioned this slop is overkill on a 4 axle diesel, I agree.
In the O.P's original photo the top axle appears to be out of guage, the wheel on the left side is not pressed far enough on the axle and neither is the gear behind it. When all the way to the outside the gears do not mesh.
The bottom axle in the photo "appears' to be closer to typical "spec" from Lionel diesels I've owned.
When the axle shifts to one side, half the gear mesh is lost, the other and they mesh fully.