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+--- Thread: What a difference a wheel change made (/showthread.php?tid=7261)
What a difference a wheel change made - River Witch 14 - 12-22-2014
This is a follow up to my thread concerning wheel sparks on my older Athearn diesels.
I took nachoman's (Kevin) advice and installed nickle silver wheels on one diesel to see how they worked.
I am happy to announce no sparks
Before ordering from Athearn I checked ebay and found them for $13 and change + $2.50 shipping. They come in a 6 pack.
I will someday order another 6 pack so I can do my other 2 diesels.
Again-thanks Kevin
Re: What a difference a wheel change made - Green_Elite_Cab - 12-23-2014
This is something I have been avoiding doing, but I probably will have to do at some point.
I have a bunch of the old Athearn wheels in my American GK E60CH locomotives. The old steel wheels pick up grime at an extraordinary rate, and this is the primary reason they haven't been showing up as much on my layout and at the club.
The only problem I have is that some of the old trucks don't have the "inside" bearings like most Athearn stuff does these days. I wonder if they make wheel sets for side-frame-supported axles?
Re: What a difference a wheel change made - River Witch 14 - 12-23-2014
On the wheel sets I bought there is a square bearing support and the side frames on my diesels have a slot that the end of the axles slip into. the only thing
I had to do was to make sure that the bearing blocks were square so they would slide into place. A pair of tweezers helps.
If you are in doubt check with Athearn,help@athearn.com. At their site under I believe trucks and accessories or parts they show two different sets of nickle silver wheel sets.
40" and 42". Each set comes packages in sets of 6. I also found the 40" wheel sets on ebay. In the search area type in parts and under category make sure it says Athearn.
Hope this help
Re: What a difference a wheel change made - nachoman - 12-23-2014
Glad you got that resolved!
Swapping for nickel-silver wheels on the old Athearn locos really helps improve electrical performance, and is really quite cheap and easy to do.
Re: What a difference a wheel change made - River Witch 14 - 12-23-2014
Kevin-as I mentioned,I got mine on ebay. They were like $13.98+shipping. The whole thing came to $15.74. As for the installation,the only thing
I had to be careful with was removing the cover from the gear box. After I installed them,I made a test run-what a difference.
Thanks again.