@Engineer-Joe posted:Would it be possible to change out the worm in the Williams Challenger then? Is that why it's so slow and so loud?
anything available like this?
Joe yes you can change the worm but the helical idle gear should be changed with it. However I had two locos with a mismatched worm wheel and they ran OK. A month or two back I posted a message that I had found a former engineer with Samhongsa in Korea who told me he could arrange for a short run of those gearbox parts but I would need to order 25-50 of them and likely mail one of the worms I wanted reproduced to him. I was hoping you would see the post but management at O gauge forum took my message down for what ever reason. Regardless I don't think I could get 25 orders in the first place so I did not pursue the issue. I don't know if the gear set you link to would work. The worm looks like a single helix to me. A double helix is the key to the 21:1 ratio. Joe you know what would be cool ? If you could install two 385 or even 395 motors in your loco. A motor for the front and another for the rear set of drivers on your Challenger. I think another problem you had was an eccentric "out of round" flywheel. Which is all too common on the Samhongsa locos. I have had to struggle with that flywheel problem. I turned to MTH flywheels with a spacer bushing between the flywheel and the motor shaft and their hard to make. I had to make one and it took me three tries to get an acceptable concentric one. Something I considered was a Mabuchi 385 motor from a diesel with a flywheel already on it. Just pull the worm off. That's a bit of fun also. It's a sunny day outside, think I'll go work on the Veranda. j
