frozen drive wheels

[jwv452]

my brother gave me some lionel trains that have been stored up in his attic for 20 yrs. when i returned home and was checking them out ifound the drive wheels on a 736 engine frozen. does anyone have any suggestions on how to free them? and do i have to take the worm gear plate off? and how is that done?

 

[Bill Stone]

I don't know anything about Lionel stuff, but.....

If your locomotive is, in fact, worm-gear driven, you may or may not actually have frozen drivers. If they won't turn when the motor tries to make them turn, perhaps they are jammed --- or the motor's shot. But if you feel they are frozen because you tried to turn them by hand, there may be nothing wrong. One "feature" of worm gears is that you cannot drive them in reverse. Trying to turn the drivers on a worm-drive locomotive really just pushes the worm forward or back, but does not turn it. So the drivers would seem to be locked.

Bill