Rebuilding Aluminum Center bogie wheels

[400brian]

Rebuilding the aluminum center bogies has been going on for some time. The procedure is pretty much the same as rebuilding the aluminum rear idlers for the slide rail sleds. That tutorial can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6587

Until fairly recently, NOS wheels were available at a cost that made rebuilding them make little sense, It now appears that that the NOS supply has been largely ran through. Going forward, it appears we are going to be rebuilding them. After some questions came up, I took one apart to see what was in there.

I really have no idea what year these wheels came off of. Based on my experience with the idler wheels, there could very well be variations of the bearings used. On this particular wheel, you can see the bearing is shielded, and it has 2 piece bushings, one pressed into each side of the bearing.

[400brian]

The bearing I found has a 17mm ID, a 40mm OD, and is 12mm wide.

The part number for these appears to be 6203LLU and this is a double lip sealed bearing. They seem to be readily available, NTN versions can be bought on Amazon for less than $10.

I think I have seen these reassembled with socket head screws, I would use red locktite if I was going to do that.

[400brian]

You knock out the reducer bushings out of the bearings as they will be re-used. The rivets holes have been punched through the centers. once you have the wheels split apart, you need to clean up the metal that has been smeared inside the center. I cleaned up the bushings where the seals run, and I re-used the original bearing shields after putting a little grease on the sealing area. I am not sure if that is the best idea or not, but the wheel was designed for the bearing with the added thickness of those shields.

The rivets I used were 3/16" dia x 3/8"long. These are more challenging than the idler wheels because the clearances are tighter, the rivets are closer to the edges. The rivets used here are shorter than what I use on the idlers. They also have a less domed head, so they didn't match my anvil as well. If I was to get serious and do a bunch of these, I would probably modify my tools and techniques a little.

[Matt]

Thanks Brian. I've got a pile of these that could use a rebuild if I ever get my 800 back together. Before, I was just trying to put together a set of usable ones.