Thi is one of those “don’t do what I did” items. I might as well share my experience as it may help others avoid the bad thing(s) I did.
My 2013 challenger threw its traction tires (I could get them back on) pretty easily when new and repeatedly. I was pleasantly surprised to find my LHS had the old non-tired driver part with the needed (3mm) wrench so I went there and also picked up some tires. He only had smaller “large” Maarklin tires but said they would work. I had to remove the nut, eccentric rod/crank and sleeve for access. Found it hard to get the tire on with the main rod and brake stuff around so got up the courage to remove the bottom cover plate / brake stuff and loosened the other side and simply removed the driver axle which made it easy to change the tires. Put back together and put on the track.
BTW, I had sent an inquiry from Athearn and they had replied that they have the tires in stock as well as the 3mm nut tool and also have the non-tired driver with tool back in stock.
It moved a bit but then hung up. Turns out I must have bent in somewhat the eccentric rod crank and that caused the eccentric rod to hit against (stop against) the driver nut and significantly (good motor!) bent the eccentric rod (it was on the side I did not observe. When I figured that out I bent the eccentric rod crank outward to recreate some clearance for the eccentric rod / nut and it went around the layout just fine. But the eccentric rod was still bent enough to look wrong, so I decided to straighten it more and succeeded in breaking it in two (two long half pieces). I could remove it and few but me would notice but I hope to get it back to original shape. I’ve inquired of Athearn on parts availability (see below) and am fearful of not having access to needed parts. My desire would be to get a put together valve gear assembly so I don’t have to learn m