Any advice on how to accomplish this? I have an old Lionel-Ives 1661E that must have had a serious incident. The armature windings are "grounding out" to the armature stack and thus to the motor shaft. I rewound the motor and I still get the same problem, less resistance between the shaft and the windings (magnet wire) than through any winding. Is it safe to insulate between the iron armature and the winding wire?