Let me start by saying I know this has been covered in other posts, I just can’t seem to find them. I’m having some issues with my Lionel scale heavyweights from the run a few years ago. I can’t seem to get the axle boxes to stay on and the wheels seem to have a lot of resistance. I assume the mechanism is out of alignment due to the axle boxes falling off. Does anyone have a remedy to this?
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I think the proper term is journal boxes, not that it helps your situation.
Are the truck side frames bent inward, making them too close to the wheels and making the axles protrude too far into the journals?
Has anyone swapped axles from what was originally installed, possibly with longer axles?
I’m not seeing anything bent. Both sets I have are this way. My original heavyweights from the early 2000s run much smoother
The attached pdf I believe was provided by Ryan at Lionel back around Jan of 2019.
Awesome thank you!
The problem is not just from the run of these cars from a few years ago. I purchased a two pack of Lionel Chessie Steam Special heavyweights earlier this year from the latest production run. That's 6 journal boxes per truck times 4 trucks equals 24 journal boxes. I found 6 journal boxes floating around loose in the packaging for a 25% failure rate. Lionel knew of the problem and did nothing to correct it.
I wound up gluing the loose ones back on. So far none of the others have fallen off but expect sooner or later they will.
Ken
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