I need someone that knows what thwey are doing to repair my Bachmann Ho shay
it needs the NWSL gears put on. I have tried the Shay Fixer but he never answers his phone, never calls back and newver answers my e-mails.
any sugestions?
thanks Big Mike
No how To’s on YouTube?
HO Scale DCC Bachmann 3 Truck Shay Upgrade 4-1-13 - YouTube
There are others.
Having tried this myself I recommend you do not tackle this yourself without a modicum of skill and a high level of confidence in your abilities.
The tricky part turns out to be the plastic axle retaining clips, these look like bearing caps. These snap into the metal truck frames using tiny pins moulded into the caps. These pins snap off REALLY EASILY.
The other challenge is pressing the new metal gears onto the sha to EXACTLY the right spots where the shafts are modestly knurled.
The instructions say you can do this with the bearing caps in place. Imho you cannot. Maybe when the plastic was nearly new but now these models are old the plastic just snaps off.
My LHS guy has a modelmaker’s press. He did a fine job for me.
If you’re very very careful you can pry up (do NOT bend the pins at all, pry straight up alternating sides prying a little at a time) and remove the plastic axle retaining clips, remove the axles, get a guy with a press to remove the old gears (if not already broken) and press on the NWSL metal gears. You then very very carefully press the plastic retaining clips back in making sure you press the tiny pins straight in, no bending.
These are lovely models and it’s a shame Bachmann didn’t engineer those retaining clips better. Everything else about the model is very good.
If you do happen to snap off a pin it can be repaired:
https://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/p/286775/3336926.aspx#3336926
I also tracked down and fixed electrical pickup faults.