If you have an old loco that has a ringfield motor (e.g. tender drive steam, DMU, diesel etc.) and is noisy and/or runs poorly, take it apart, clean the idler gears and swap them over from front to back (i.e. the lead gear becomes the trailing one). It's worked a treat with my old Airfix Scot!
I think the reason is that we tend to run locos forward most of the time and this wears the plastic gears in a certain way but swap them over and it's like new.
I suppose it's equivelent of changing tyres around on a car to even the wear out (like what us old guys used to do years ago - didn't we?).
poliss
You can turn them round too, so the worn bits are at the back. I used to do that on something years ago, can't remember what though. Might have been my motorbike.
Teleman
The gear on the motor wears out to one i changed yesterday
, but works a treat:
one i changed yesterday
