Bachmann trailing truck wheel wobble

[Bill H]

Group:
On almost every Bachmann steamer I have, the trailing truck wheels wobble rather significantly. I also have seen the same on the front trucks of some of the connies.

Anyone found a replacement wheelset short of NWSL?

Kind regards,
Bill

[wvgca]

it -may- be something to do with weight of the trucks ??
i haven't seen this on HO, i model 1890's

[Bill H]

Nothing to do with the weight of the trucks. Spinning the wheels by hand with the truck off the loco results in the same problem. From what I can tell, the tire is not straight on the spoked plastic inserts, and the inserts are not correctly centered. In other words, it is a mess...

Tried to think of leading and trailing truck wheels that might be "captured" from other engines - say KATO but so far no luck.

Cheers,
Bill

[Lemosteam]

When you say "wobble" do you mean that as they roll the wheel looks like when a car has four of five lug nuts missing or do you mean that the entire axle moves, or do you mean the axle points flop around?

[Bill H]

Hi John:
Sorry for the obviously unclear description. It wobbles horizontally slightly side to side, and vertically up and down. Removing the wheel set from the truck still exhibits the same problem. It appears to be two separate issues, one the metal tire pressed on the spoked plastic insert is not pressed on correctly, despite numerous attempts on my part to correct. The second problem seems to be that the hole in the plastic spoked insert is not centered. John, I do not see a fix is possible, thus my question as to what wheelset could I substitute?

FWIW, I have seen this issue on numerous Bachmann steamers. And often the front truck wheelsets seem to have the same issues, but due to the smaller radius it is less apparent.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Lemosteam]

That helps.  So they exhibit the issue just rolling on a desk (trying to rule out track or ballast) and they also exhibit this if you take the axle out by itself as well?

Call Bachmann- they may replace them for you.

If they are spoked, you might have a hard time finding replacements in the same diameter.  Also the shaft diameters may be different buying an off the shelf wheelset.

[narrowminded]

Hi John:
Sorry for the obviously unclear description. It wobbles horizontally slightly side to side, and vertically up and down. Removing the wheel set from the truck still exhibits the same problem. It appears to be two separate issues, one the metal tire pressed on the spoked plastic insert is not pressed on correctly, despite numerous attempts on my part to correct. The second problem seems to be that the hole in the plastic spoked insert is not centered. John, I do not see a fix is possible, thus my question as to what wheelset could I substitute?

FWIW, I have seen this issue on numerous Bachmann steamers. And often the front truck wheelsets seem to have the same issues, but due to the smaller radius it is less apparent.

Kind regards,
Bill

Definitely try Bachmann first but if that's a bust I might be able to remake that set but would need an example or some really good dimensions.     PM if there's an interest in pursuing it.