Does anyone know where I can purchase brushes for a Marx 1666? I was repairing the engine for a person in my wife's church choir and I lost a brush. I can't find it anywhere.
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I would try Jeff Kane at the Train Tender. He does list some Marx parts. It's tender.com
da bay usually has them.
Thanks, Pennsydave, for the quick response. I put in a call to Jeff.
If he doesn't have them, Robert Grossman does.
I ended up ordering from Grossman. In the meantime, a buddy had a new set of brushes. I put them in and it only ran in reverse. You can't get at the E-unit unless you tear the motor housing apart and it's not worth the hassle. It would be easier to just put a new motor in it. There not made to come apart easily.
Just rock the loco back and forth on the track when the reverse unit sticks. If still stuck, rock harder. If still stuck, I've seen guys squirt WD-40, contact cleaner - all kinds of solvents up into it. You're right in that they're not meant to be taken apart easily. I don't bother - not my idea of fun.
Just a caveat for anyone contemplating ordering Marx parts from that auction site: All the ones I've seen are vastly overpriced. Just compare prices with Grossman, and you'll see what I mean.
If you turn the engine over an look into the reverse unit there is a brass actuator for the rocker switch. Us a pair of tweezers or any tool that allows you to grab the actuator and work it through it's range of travel several times. This in conjunction with some electrical contact cleaner should free the reverse up if it's a little sticky.
Jim McClenin
