@gunrunnerjohn posted:I usually buy my stuff like this from Zoro, so far it's been the real thing.
@Matt_GNo27 posted:When I reassembled the locomotive, it ran a short distance and then stopped. It could go in the opposite direction a short distance before stopping. The worm wheel and cylinder were binding. The cause, and I'm confident the cause of the original slipping on the drive axle, each worm wheel had a fine crack causing the worm wheels to be out-of-roundl and thus bind.
I'd noticed a line when initially disassembling the drive, but overlooked it as the cause of the problem, since it seemed to be an odd type of failure, and assumed it to be a mark from the manufacturing process. Indeed Frank Timko had never heard of such a failure, but he promptly sent me replacements.
The replacement worm wheels have been installed with a sparing amount of Vibra-tite 530 retaining compound, the locomotive reassembled, and now runs fine.
FWIW, the parts bonded with Vibra-tite 530 were easy to free with a ballpeen hammer and punch.
The cracked worm wheels (they were much less noticeable prior to using the retaining compound):
During the last month or two I have been getting engines out of storage, servicing and running them. I have a Williams Western Maryland fireball GP9 I've had in storage for quite some time and when placed on track it wouldn't run properly. Investigated and sure enough one of the brass helical gears that mates with a motor pinion was cracked. Just wanted to say after I repaired the gear I changed the motor wiring from parallel to series which I've performed on other Kline and Williams locomotives. WOW what a improvement. Obviously I can't say it's as good as cruise control but maybe a close second. Now a great running engine that can really creep along. It's A shame some of Williams engines are prone for that gear failure, other than that they're bullet proof.
