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I bought a #52 post war fire car as junk, Cleaned and rewired per post war lionel manual. Having a issue with the field. Can I put a 50-42 Field Assembly from a post war #50 gang car that is double wound? I can buy one, but have a issue finding a #52-48 Field Assembly that is for the fire car. It does run off the track as I bench test it, And at times nothing.. All brushes and springs are new and Armature is clean. Any Ideas? Thank You

 

[Millstonemike]

I bought a #52 post war fire car as junk, Cleaned and rewired per post war lionel manual. Having a issue with the field. Can I put a 50-42 Field Assembly from a post war #50 gang car that is double wound? I can buy one, but have a issue finding a #52-48 Field Assembly that is for the fire car. It does run off the track as I bench test it, And at times nothing.. All brushes and springs are new and Armature is clean. Any Ideas? Thank You

It sounds like you've determined one of the two fields is bad. I think that's easy enough to test by manually moving the bumper on the test bench. The reversing mechanism works by energizing one field or the other depending on the reversing slides position from the last "bump". If one field is bad, it should not work in one direction but run fine in the other. If that's the case, I'd review the reversing mechanism's contacts before replacing the field assembly. I'm guessing you've already done this.

I'd ask (email) Jeff Kane at train tender.com. He lists the 50-42 field assembly but not the 52-48. That's common on his site when identical parts have several Lionel numbers. That the part is only listed under one of it's numbers.