Hi all, I hope someone can help me. I have a Marklin 81461 ( Z scale "Burlington Route" Steam Engine) and it just died on me. So I put voltage to the left and right side of one of the powered axles and nothing happens. I began to suspect the motor was bad, so I had to take out the wheels and gears to narrow down the fault (or faults). Reapplied the voltage to left and right side of pickup, the motor is running fine. When I put the wheels back in and the gears in, and of course make sure the pick-ups are behind the wheels and making contact, I noticed that all the wheels have to be exactly aligned with the rest. What I mean is where the arms connect to each wheel they are all connected at the same position, for instance all are at 6 o'clock or 12 o'clock. So I lined up the wheels as close as I could get them with the gears in place, then I screwed the bottom pan back on. I applied about 6 volts to it and it spun for about half a second then would not spin again. I go back and remove the wheels and gears again and recheck the motor. It does nothing at first, but when i manually turn the motor about 180 degrees and put voltage back to it, it spins. And I make sure it runs good and it did.
I checked for what seems forever online. "do it yourself in z" is a site I frequent, but I did not see a step-by-step instruction on replacing the wheels and gears. I would like to know if there is a link or if someone can please tell me a good way to drop those wheels and gears in right. What ever happened to cause my engine to die I probably will not know. I know the motor runs and those gears are lubed and not damaged. I just was wondering if there is a technique to it, because I am finding it very difficult to line up all the wheels because the gears make them move a little as you drop them in. And I have tried with the gears in first and I have tried with the wheels in first (not sure which is right way), if I can get this running I have another smaller switch engine that has the same problem. I would greatly appreciate any help!

Sincerely,
Chad

I know this is not your loco but it's the best one I have seen for doing this job, have you seen it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...N2g&feature=youtu.be

Thanks, yes I have watched it a lot actually. This engine is much easier to put back together than most. I'd like to see a video of someone putting the gears back in a big boy, lol. But yes it was helpful and thanks.