#511 Wheel Conversion

#511 Wheel Conversion
	Items needed: a lint free cloth, an NMRA HO clearance gauge, a cotton swab, a small flat screw driver, plastic compatible oil and grease. Make sure any lubrication won't harm the plastic parts.

Be sure to get the proper replacement wheels for the engine. Older Athearn models have the bearings on the outside of the wheels and later models have the bearings being between the wheels. The former has metal sideframes, and the latter, plastic. NWSL has both types of replacement wheels.
	Blue Arrow--to remove the truck from the chassis, gently pry up the clip covering the worm gear. The worm gear will pull out and the truck drop downward. Red Arrow--to disassemble, remove the bottom clip and the short clip on the inward top end. The halves will separate. Green Arrow--this older style of truck has the wheel bushings in the sideframes so that the end of the axles ride in them. This is where the track voltage is transferred from the wheels to the sideframe.
	Lift off the three gears and put the smallest amount of grease on the gear posts. Use a cotton swab and go around the posts to rub the grease onto them and remove any excess. Grease causes friction! The parts only need a very light coat, they don't need a tablespoon!
	To install the new wheels, simply pull the Athearn wheels out of the black plastic axle/gear tube and slip the NWSL wheels in. Use an NMRA clearance gauge to check wheel gauge.

To grease the gears, put the tiniest amount on the spots where they mesh and then spin the gears to distribute the grease.
	Be very careful! Touch the oil tube to an edge of the journal bushing and as soon as oil comes out, take it away. Then stick a cotton swab into the bushing and twist to distribute and wipe up the oil. The track current is picked up here so this has to be almost dry. Don't put a whole drop! This will block the current and cause the mechanism to run poorly if at all. This tiny bit of oil does not interfere with electrical conductivity and helps remove any build up that might be present.
	The truck is reassembled without the worm gear and pushed on the rails to see how well it rolls. If it doesn't roll well, disassembly and fix the bind.
Some causes of binding: plastic tube is damaged and does not hold wheels at proper angle; end of axle has a sharp edge between the face and the shaft; journals are damaged or have excessive matter inside of them; halves of truck are not fitting together properly; sideframe is not properly mounted on truck half.
	Use the oil and cotton swab to cleanup the worm gear and bearings.
Next is to clean up the electrical connections. Since most of the connections are steel, they have a tendency to rust if placed in a moist environment. If the connections are clean, don't clean them. This chassis was in bad condition. Use a fine needle file with light pressure. File away the corrosion, not the metal. Don't use steel wool as it leaves bits of the wool behind which can find their way into the motor.

Check where the truck sets on the chassis (Blue and Red Arrows) and where the metal bar rides (bottom side of clip at Light Blue Arrow). I took the truck apart to clean this area (Right Hand Photo).

The bar only needs to be cleaned where it touches the motor (Left Photo shows the motor side of the clip) and where it touches the trucks (Right Photo shows the top of the clip).

Clean the bottom motor feed and the spot it touches on the chassis if needed. Even though the motor will be replaced, I wanted to test the chassis with only the replacement wheels first.
	Blue Arrow--I pushed the armature in one direction to have the widest space between the motor frame and the flywheel. A couple of drops of oil were placed on the motor shaft. I hand spun the armature several times and then wiped up the excess oil. The other end was done also. Adding the oil on the outside of the motor keeps the oil away from the electrical parts. Red Arrow--on the commutator, I very lightly oiled one end of a cotton swab and held it against the commutator and turned the armature. This removed any carbon build up. Then I held a lint free cloth in place and turned the armature again to remove the oil. The oil was used as a means to remove the carbon, not to lubricate any parts!
	The mechanism was reassembled and retested. It started running at 5 volts, and ran quite well at 6 volts, still requiring 1/2 an amp. No wiggling or prodding was needed.
The last modification is the installation of the replacement motor which also calls for the addition of electrical pickup wires in place of the Athearn system.