How to replace a worm wheel

[marsRR]

Hello, I need (think) to put a new worm wheel in my Lionel 736 Berkshire locomotive (magnatraction). The engine goes in reverse well but when going forward there is alot of slipping or grinding. The gear on the engine armature is good. Is the procedure hard to do? I'd hate to ruin the locomotive by trying this but the part seems rather in expensive so maybe I can buy one and tackle this myself. I also have put a couple of shimms under the motor but it just does'nt stop it enough unless I just want to go in reverse all the time.

Thanks guys for any advice,

Jeff

 

[tracman165]

I noticed no one has answered your question, so I'll give you my two cents
for what its worth. If you have a hobby shop, with a repair shop that is
trusted. I would take it to them. I had an engine "Santa Fe" F7 that was
purchased back in the 50's I took it in to them and it runs like brand new.
It has alot of sentimental value, so I dared not take a chance by doing myself.
Just a suggestion. Good Luck!

 

[Russ Bellinis]

I don't know where you are from, and I don't know much about Lionel, but my local hobby shop no longer works on Lionel locomotives. Lionel has changed for the worse recently and they have too much trouble getting parts to do the repairs. When someone brings in a Lionel locomotive for repair now, they advise them to send it to Lionel for repair.

 

[tracman165]

Say Russ I know what you mean about Lionel. I live down here in
a small town 30 miles south of San Antonio. There are 2 hobby
shops that do "O", think I'm down to 1 now. I hope you're not like
me, I'm a one man O gauge show. Have you tried some of your
railroad friends that might work on trains as a spare time thing?
Or maybe someone in the Gauge does that kind of work reasonable.
About Lionel, I wouldn't buy anything that wasn't made by them, then
I checked out MTH, Williams and K-Line. I tried some of their stuff,
and believe it or not I was pleasantly surprised. Once you get establised
with Williams, they even have a payment plan! The items look and feel
good too! Hope this helps.
Harry

 

[Russ Bellinis]

Actually, I'm an ho modeler. My first actual exprience with Lionel is a set that my last boss before I retired gave me. I detailed the circumstances in a thread entitled "I got a surprise today" in the general forum. I haven't tried to run the Lionel set, yet. I have it packed away as we prepare for some major remodeling on our house. I just hear about the problems or good service from different manufacturers/distributors from my friends at the local hobby shop. They used to be an "Official Lionel Repair Station", but the customer service has gotten so bad with Lionel that they have dropped it. They just tell customers to "send it to Lionel." They have had quality control issues with new Lionel offerings as well. Someone called asking about a new Lionel Christmas set out this year. They didn't have any in stock and won't have any. They ordered 4 sets and received them. They unpack and test run everything before they sell it. In the case of theses Lionel sets. They ordered 4 sets, received 4 sets, tested 4 sets, and sent back 4 sets for failures right out of the box!

 

[tracman165]

Russ I am really sorry to hear that, I grew up with Lionel, but as I said
they got a little out of my price range, which in turn drove me to other
vendors. My first 2 sets were Lionel, back in the early 50's, even have
my original ZW transformer.
Happy Holidays!
Harry

 

[marsRR]

Tracman thanks for the advice. This engine was given to me by my father when I was born in 1966 so for me I will look for someone locally who maybe specializes in these repairs and go from there.

Thanks for the replies guys,

Jeff