I need to adjust my wheel sets on some new engines and am looking for a standards gauge. In the past I've seen a few pop up on Ebay... Anyone know where I can find one online?
Mike, Welcome to the group. I'm afraid there are no official NMRA gauges for Z. However, MTL makes and sells a coupler gauge that includes a basic wheel gauge: http://micro-trainsline.com/image/cache/data/Product/Packageditems/98800032-1000x800.JPG Mark
Republic locomotive works also makes a Nn3 Gauge, and it can be used for z scale. . https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?ID=570
Mike, my experience is that the when the flanges are 'exactly' in the middle of the flange notch (on the side of the block), they clear anything (MTL & Rokuhan turnouts, etc.). You'll have a ghost of a gap on earlier side the flange, in that notch. Be careful trying to realign wheels. Most are pressed on, some seemingly glued, some come off *very* easily and can literally spin. Avoid the temptation to shove a screw driver in between the wheels backside and the trucks center, *especially* Micro-Trains as the is a wheel wiper in there! AZL uses a flat plate on the outer frame side so nothing between the wheel's backside and truck center. Pressing a screw driver in there like a wedge makes the wheels out of center (wobbling). Unfortunately, it is a pain to take most trucks apart and get them back together. I used a 6" machinists rule, narrowed the width, beveled the lead edge and notched where the axle would go. This makes a simple parallel, when the need to go wider. Virtually every locomotive in the past few years has been very good. MTL's where pretty much on and *early* AZL's (GP7 and *early* SD70's) where frequently under gauge. Again, the past few years, all are really close.
Even though it's usually in gauge, it's always better to have a gauge to rule it out when a loco or a car is not running right.
Thanks guys... I'm still waiting on delivery of my gauge in the mail.... but when I run the engines, one derails everytime at a specific turnout, others engines breeze through... others seem to catch a guardrail or perhaps they're getting pinched... My problem is I'm using MTL turnouts and MTL engines for the most part. Will let you know how I fair. Once I've ruled out the wheelsets then I can move on to other possible solutions.
The early runs of the turnouts had thicker guard rails (the short ones, next to the stock (outer) rails at the frog section). A small jeweler's file between the stock rail and guard rail to thin it. Some had the points straight rail a bit bowed in, towards the curved point, making it bind a bit there. If it is one loco, that's a winner. You can hold another one that runs well 'back-to-back' against the suspect one to see if there is an obvious difference.
