For many years Bill Walthers offered traction kits with various drives and speeds. All had wooden floors and motors that could be seen through windows. MU'ing different types of drives did not work too well and mixing them with brass was worse. Older truck side frames were cast in a lead alloy with not too sharp detail. Later well detailed, coined brass side frames were offered. Wheel bases on MU's were slightly short. To eliminate the unsightly motors and provide compatibility with newer brass, replacement with Spuds is desirable. Fortunately correct wheel base Spuds are available for all, including North Shore Line cars and Doodlebugs. Being almost identical, all conversions are very easy using the Z bracket.
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Old style power truck w/ spring drive and side mounted motor.
Before removing old truck, measure floor hight and power truck center for later reference. Disassemble and remove power truck. Mark center lines on floor with fine marker. After eye-balling , shimming the SPUD ZEE bracket to floor bottom was the best choice. Using bracket truck screw hole and transverse center line as guides, locate two screw holes on longitudinal center line. Wood or machine screws with nuts in countersunk holes may be used. In the airplane section, 2-56 Tee nut sets with prongs can ease mounting. A little cement will help prevent nuts from being pushed out. Guestimate the number of shims needed from data sheet info and mount SPUD with bracket. Check and correct hight with Evergreen strips or brass shim stock. Glue these to bracket and cut screw clearance slot, when correct.
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Spud mounting.
