My new-to-me B6 Questions

Hm.  There's no way metal from the plated driving wheel rims could have found its way into the enclosed gearbox.  More than likely, flashing was not fully removed from the "starts" of the multi-threaded worm before it was installed, so it sloughed off in the course of inital operation and ended up in the sump.

@GeoPeg I would like to hear more about how you re-mounted the nylon spur gear.  Removing it seems like a risky thing to do; I would be afraid of it slipping after reinstallation.  How much "bite" does it have, was the shaft deeply knurled?

I really wanted one of these switchers when they first came out, but they were SO expensive.  When the prices finally came down, I came across a used one at York.  On the test track it seemed balky and hesitant, so I walked away.  I would be interested in seeing what kind of slow-speed performance yours has, now that you've gone over it.  Thanks for posting!

@Ted S, after writing all this and heading for bed, I paused and went back up to the train room. While up there, I cleaned the wheels and found the right side blind driver wheel was flaking metal, and it was coming off in curved shards - sort of reminded me of when I took chrome cleaner to the rusty bumper of my 1954 Chevy, metal flakes just fell right off. It was the only wheel that was doing that. So clearly that could have been a source, but you're also correct in asking how that would have gotten inside the gearbox.

As I continued cleaning, I also found that there are three wheels with cams on the inside, two of which have fork type followers that activate the valve gear.  Why three? Dunno, as the rear one did not appear to be used for anything. On the left front cam, it showed signs of wear, unlike the right side cam. It looked like some pretty good scraping had been going on. The left side cam also drives the smoke piston, so the extra load could have caused extra wear, especially if things had been crudded up. But I don't think the wear I saw would account for the metal pieces I found.

After pulling the shell off, I noticed the spur gear wobble while doing a test run (on blocks.) I used a cheap little gear puller to remove the gear and it came off easy - I could see it was sitting on a well-splined shaft, so I wasn't too worried about remounting. I put it back on the shaft with the opposite side facing the worm. I just wanted to flip it, hoping that any "set" the gear had taken might magically be cancelled by so doing. I squared everything up on my arbor press, added just a tiny drop of Loctite Red, crossed my fingers and pulled the lever - there is zero wobble now.

This engine does contain a Pullmor motor, so balky and hesitant can certainly happen. I have found some Pullmors, when cleaned and lubed, had VERY smooth startups and running - but not all of them have that happy ending. Many times armature bearing wear can drag that performance down into the abysmal regions! So I would certainly recommend testing before buying, or look for one that you could see had low mileage. I think very light or no roller wear is a pretty good indicator. So I also look for roller changeouts that have been done as a possible negative factor.

I'll put up a short vid tonight or tomorrow - right now life in general and Dr's appointments are getting in the way of my train-play!

George

I find that the worm rarely wears out, it's normally the worm gear (the spur gear that mates with the worm).  Did you examine that closely for wear?

This is the gear that usually takes the damage in my experience.  It's on the axle of the blind wheels in the center.

@gunrunnerjohn yes, I did check the worm gear, it was soaked in relatively fresh lithium gease, so I cleaned all that out of the "gearbox" so I could see everything better, especially the worm gear. Except for finding shards of metal and evidence of some very dried out, old grease under the new lithium stuff, all looked good, in fact VERY good - couldn't see any signs of wear.

@Ted S After putting everything back together, she runs very nicely - slow, even, steady are words I would use too describe startup. Personally, I like my engines quiet, except for whatever sound effects I might add. This one has a tiny bit of e-unit buzz, a gentle clunk-clunk from the smoke piston drive, and just a very small amount of noise from the Pullmor. And it easily pulls a nice load with no wheel slippage. I'm pretty happy considering I won it for less than a hundred bucks - must have been a slight pause in the etho-sphere just as the last few seconds ticked down on the bidding clock!

Enuff yakking, here's a badly shot video from my iPhone. I'm a very happy camper.

George

Very nice, congrats!  It sounds like you got a great buy on a smooth-running classic!  Thanks also for posting the video.  After seeing yours, I'm gonna put one of these back on my wish list!