I recently purchased a Lionel GN F3-A #366-A that appears to be from the 1992 run. I purchased the unit on EBay. It was described as “Runs great, Light, Horn, works”. Well there were a few things off on this description when I received the actual unit.
1. The unit did not “Run Great”, it was very jerky at slower speeds. I checked the power trucks and noticed that the wheels on the rear power truck were binding. Disassembly of the truck revealed a partially stripped nylon worm gear as the issue.
2.The Horn, as subsequnt research revealed, obviously did not work as the powered A units did not have a Horn installed. The Horn and railsounds for the set were in an unpowered A unit.
I could return the unit for a refund but wonder if it is worth pursuing a partial refund and tackling the repair myself?
So my questions I have about the unit is how reliable are these units normally? I can find both replacement brass and nylon worm gears online and the repair looks to be pretty simple. Is it worth it to repair it and if so, which gear would be better to use, the nylon ones or the brass ones? The Horn, obviously, is a lost cause :-)
thanks,
Kevin
