Lionel 6-18216 Conrail SD-60M Front Motor Issues

There's probably some binding occurring in the front truck. First step is to get the truck off, clean everything out as best you can (disassembling the truck and scrubbing individual gears, etc is best). While everything is apart, inspect the worm and gears for cracks, warping, etc that could be causing the binding. After cleaning and assuming you don't see any cracks, put it back together, lube it all up, and see if it runs any better. Best case is some crud was causing binding, worse case is something like a cracked gear.

@Mike0289 posted:

There's probably some binding occurring in the front truck. First step is to get the truck off, clean everything out as best you can (disassembling the truck and scrubbing individual gears, etc is best). While everything is apart, inspect the worm and gears for cracks, warping, etc that could be causing the binding. After cleaning and assuming you don't see any cracks, put it back together, lube it all up, and see if it runs any better. Best case is some crud was causing binding, worse case is something like a cracked gear.

Mike,

Thank you, I will give that a go and report back when I get to it!

Does anyone know of any guidance to the removal of the front truck? Any helpful videos or advice?

Check the brushes on the front motor.

One easy way to do it is to take the cab shell off, apply power to the track, and then push down lightly on both brushes with  toothpicks.

If it works either the brushes or the brush springs need to be replaced.

I have had similar problems on dual pulmor motors and several times I have found either one or both brushes are worn or the brush springs need to be replaced.

So I found this little surprise.

It looks like the worm wheel (600-0623-022) is bad. Wow was that area nasty. I even found a stray hair...

I think someone had either tried to repair this previously, or tried to grease the worm wheel armature connection because there was gunk all in there. Also removing the top apparatus to free the motor was really easy for the front and really tough for the rear...

The worm wheel seemed totally out of position and I reset it to where the rear one was at.

But overall the motor armature shaft will not turn the worm wheel.

Now comes the fun of finding one 🤣

Any leads?

I don't know where you can find a replacement worm wheel but just maybe this member does:

https://ogrforum.com/...il-sd60-problem-help

A common problem on the Lionel SD60M engines. Make it a dummy unit.

I found a replacement part which is brass instead of the plastic one.  I hope it will work.  If not, I will make it a dummy unit.

I'm pretty bummed, this is such a nice engine.  I will follow up with the seller on this, it was advertised as working well.  I'm also not sure if the poor packaging played a role in this either.  Luckily the RSII still works.

Thanks for the insight and help, everyone.

A quick search on the Lionel parts site doesn't yield any results for that model number. You could try calling Lionel to see if they have anything that's not on the website but YMMV.

Alternatively, you could try to find an identical unit and swap the problematic truck/motor, and maybe make the spare a dummy or single motor unit?

@Mike0289 posted:

A quick search on the Lionel parts site doesn't yield any results for that model number. You could try calling Lionel to see if they have anything that's not on the website but YMMV.

Alternatively, you could try to find an identical unit and swap the problematic truck/motor, and maybe make the spare a dummy or single motor unit?

Luckily, I have another engine that can pull this one and I can just remove the motors of this one.  But I definitely want to try everything in my power to get this to work.  We shall see how it turns out.

Thanks again, Mike.

I figured I would post an update with positive news!

The other motor had severed one phase wire (gotta love older solder joints) when I took the shell off. I resoldered that back and now it's running fantastic with just the rear motor.

It definitely needed a good oil and grease too. Now the motor is working like a champ and I can actually use it.

I might not even put the front motor and new worm gear back when it arrives.

Thank you everyone who gave help and suggestions!

I can have fun running some trains now 😃