Lighting in Lionel 68 Executive Inspection Car

As far as LED’s I would go with Evan Design warm white and a red blinking light 3mm will probably do the trick. As far as the growlers go I would give it a complete service on the motor and some grease on the worm gear. The AC motor is only going to be so quiet but it is what it is.

There is also an armature tension adjustment in involving a hex head screw. The details of the adjustment escape me now but it improved the smoothness and noise considerably.  I have the reissue model of this car. Check Lionel for the manual  and it describes the adjustment.

John

Some of the vertical AC motors do have a screw in the brushplate on top over the axle, the trick is to adjust that for minimal end play, no more than 1/16", I normally go a little tighter.

Thanks all.  I have not had a unit like this before, so I need to look into what y'all said about making it run smoother.

I took the 68 executive inspection car totally apart.  It is definitely unique (to use a nice word).  After I had it apart I thought 'Hey, youtube had a whole bunch of stuff for nuts and bolts repairs on a lot of the postwar engines and motorized units.  Let me check there.'  To my dismay I could not find one video of that unit being serviced.  One guy had something about rebuilding the car shell, but that was it.  I recleaned all the moving parts, added grease and oil appropriately, and rewired some stuff that had flaking insulation.  I found there is a very specific order on putting the parts back together.

In the end, I put it on my test oval, and it run much quieter than before, and a lot faster.  So overall it was successful.  I am definitely not looking forward to any future servicing of that vehicle (I did replace the bulbs with LEDs).