In the end I resorted to cheating and swapping the chassis, two main reasons for this - A. Because the wheels, not the pins were the cause of the rod pins falling out and B. When I tried converting to DCC I managed to drill out the un-insulated brush tube too big, after several attempts to refit I gave up and decided to scrap the chassis, the rest of the loco however was too nice to scrap and at £70 was one of my more expensive purchases at the time. It had never really run right from the day I acquired it - this was later found to be due to a faulty armature and some voltage leakage through the insulated brush tube, so after weeks of searching (and buying an A4 chassis that didn't have red wheels!) I finally tracked down a reasonably priced Gresley, complete with red wheels!
The loco was advertised as being in running order but, as seems to be the norm, it juddered, stuttered then smelt pretty bad and shuddered to a halt.
Time for some surgery...
Within minutes, the body was off, pickup, electrics, brushes, springs, armature, magnet & pole pieces all removed ready for cleaning & servicing.
With everything removed, the wheels should run nice and free, but they didn't and closer inspection revealed loads of dirt and muck in the axles.
(This is where it pays to remove the third rail pickup for better inspection of the middle axle)
(Rightly or wrongly) I use WD40 or equivalent at this stage, mainly as a cleaning agent, giving it a liberal dousing and leaving it to stand before wiping away any excess and checking the running wheels again. This time they were fine.
The spoons of the third rail pickup were badly marked and pitted, so a quick polish in the vice using a Dremel soon brought these back to life.
After a visual inspection to ensure that the 50+ years of dirt and grime had been successfully removed, it was time to lightly oil the axles.
This is a com-stick, generally used to clean commutators on washing machine motors, but works really well as a track cleaner, and for sprucing up the wheel flanges!
A quick spot of oil on all the rods & pins - if it moves, lubricate it!
After a quick cleanup of the armature segments, a neo magnet was installed, the chassis was then reassembled. Then after a quick electrical resistance check I fitted my original Gresley body and sent it off down the track for a test run... Perfect!
So after about an hour's work I finally have a nice example of a Gresley loco that runs as good as it looks.
Only thing is that I'm now left with another Gresley body & tender, and a spare A4 chassis with black wheels - enough spare bits to basically build another A4 loco, I already have Mallard & Silver king though.
Maybe time to consider sending this little lot away for a repaint...
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