Ok, so now you have the rims off of the axles.  The next step is to prep your wheel sets to go on the axles.  I had been replacing the plastic wheels on some of my rolling stock with metal ones so I used these old wheels for my project.  Once again I grabbed the wheels, one in each hand, and pulled one of the wheels off of the old axle.  Setting the remaining wheel face down, with the axle pointing up, I pushed the wheel down till it was flush with the end of the axle.  Then I used my axle jig again, with the cut off nail, and punched the axle out of the remaining wheel.  The wheels have a plastic axle housing that protrudes from the back of the wheel.  I took a hack saw and cut that housing off flush with the back of the wheel.  (Note:  Make sure to take a file or a Dremel with a cut off wheel and clean up the spot where you cut the housing off so that is is nice and smooth.  See the picture for the cut off housings and the two gears on the axle.)

The axles from the truck measure about 11/64".  This is another great thing about this Turck in that the axles are bigger than rolling stock axles so you can drill them out to fit.  The Stompers had smaller axles so you had to figure something else out.  

So taking a 5/32" drill bit, I drilled out the center of each plastic wheel.  I only made one pass in and out of the wheel with the drill bit.  If you work it in and out to much you will widen the hole and the axle will not be snug. Once you have a pair of wheels drilled out you can press them onto the axle with your hands.  Push them onto the axle till they are about 1/8" past the end of the axle.  (Note:  Make sure the 2nd gear that slides along the axle is still there before you press the wheels on.)  Now set this axle back into the chassis of the truck.  Chances are that the wheels will be a little to close together for the axle to sit all the way down.  You will need to adjust the wheels in or out until there is just 1 or 2 millimeters clearance between the inside of the wheel and the chassis.  Once you are satisfied that the axle is in place and rolls smoothly you need to take it back out and roll it along a piece of track.  The tolerance is only a few millimeters.  If the wheels are to close together it binds up on the chassis and doesn't roll smoothly.  If the wheels are to far apart then they bind or don't even fit between the rails of the track.  

Once you are satisfied with the first axle, repeat the process for second axle.

After the second axle was completed and the wheel spacing was adjusted I added a little Lithium grease (any grease will work) at these points:

I just added this little bit of grease in hopes that it will make the whole assemble work better and last longer.

The last thing to do is to snap the other half of the chassis back into place.  It is kind of snug.  Just take your time, make sure everything is lined up and make sure all 6 clips are fastened.  The battery cover will be a little tricky to get back into place because the wheels are so close but you can do it without altering the cover.  Now if you feel the wheels are not snug enough on the axle, mix a little epoxy and dab it around the front of the wheel where it meets the axle.  I have not done this yet.  I want to see how long it will work without the epoxy.  Who knows, it may never come loose enough to spin the axle inside the wheel.

I put a rechargeable "AA" battery into the unit and gave it a run on the layout.  It was 35 degrees and the wind was gusting to 50 mph but you can't just build something and not try it out!  Once I removed all the leaves the new power unit ran great!  The motor does make a little noise but I believe it was only half as loud as the little Stompers used to be.  Once you build a body around it the sound would be even less.

I am extremely pleased with how quickly these little trucks can be converted and how well it runs on the layout.  It took me 3 hours to make the first one but I would say it can be done in under 2 hours once you know what you are doing.  The size is almost perfect and the speed is too.  It doesn't crawl along and it doesn't scream down the track.  Now I just need to figure out where I can use a bunch of these!  When I kit bash this power unit into something, I will post another article here.

If you build something out of one of these units please drop me an e-mail with a picture.  I would be glad to see everyone's creativity.

John F

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