The other day I picked up a 514R refrigerator car on eBay. One of the wheels has a considerable wobble to it, but it rolls just fine on the track. I’m not sure if the cause of the wobble is a bent axle or the center of the wheel is deformed. If I should manage to get my hands on a replacement wheel and axle some day, what is the process for installing them? There is a metal beam that connects on each side to the black parts that have stamped suspension springs, and to which the journal covers are attached. I think the ends of the beam have tiny tabs that fit through the black parts, and I think one pair of tabs would have to be straightened so that one black side can be removed. Is that right? What tool can be used to avoid scratching the black tabs and the black part?
My recommendation for a tool would be a suitable plastic ‘spudger’ of the kind used to open or spread cell-phone or other device cases.
You’ll want to turn the axle between centers to determine if the axle is bent vs. the hole in the wheel being off-center. In a pinch you might be able to clamp one axle end in the Jacob’s chuck of a drill, but don’t spin the drill too fast!
If the wheel is off-center, you’ll want a lathe with boring attachment. Chuck the tread in a centering chuck – if using a four-jaw, true it to the tread profile. Then bore the center hole oversize to take a suitable bushing, and bore (or drill) the bushing to suitable press or friction fit on the axle (this is how carriage-wheel boxings are bored concentric). You can slightly rough up or knurl the axle where the wheel will be seated to get a stronger fit.
So you use the orange rod to pop the axle out without disassembling anything else, and can also just pop it back in again? Oil the axle end before, or after popping it out, or both?
Yes. In case you hadn’t recognized it, that’s the handle of an art paintbrush. The best way to oil the axle imho is after you’ve done all the cleaning and dressing of the axle ends and the ‘holes’ in the side frames, and reassembled them: reach in with the equivalent of a clock oiler and let capillary action pull the oil into the bearing between side frame and axle end.
It’s a little bit tight doing it that way but it saves from possibly breaking off the tabs on the ends of the spreader bar. I wouldn’t recommend doing it every day though.
Brilliant. Thank you both. I found a set of four wheels for sale. When they arrive I’ll give this a try.
I found a black plastic implement in a Torx screwdriver set that I think is a spudger for cell phone work. The axle on the 514R car popped out pretty easily. The axle is somewhat bent, but the wheel was by far the bigger contributor to the wobble. I put a new wheel on, which almost eliminated the wobble. Popped the axle back in and oiled axle ends and wheels as suggested. While I was at it I popped out an axle on my 513 cattle car so that I could bend the second tab of a journal cover that I replaced a couple of months ago. That axle was much more difficult to pop out and back in.