Hello everyone, I have what may seem like a dumb question. I just purchased (4) LGB #67403 ball bearing wheels with pickups and (4) 67419 Solid Steel wheels so that I could add lighting to two passenger cars. Is there a correct way to install the ball bearing wheels with pickups? What I mean is should I use them to the outer most part of the car or use them on the inside set of wheels. Also, does anyone have any pictures that show where they drilled the holes in the bottom of the car and where you routed the wire to the wheels. I want to do this the right way the first time. Any helpful information would be greatly appreciated.
Personally I would not mix the BB wheels with the regular wheels. On the few cars I have that use them, all 4 axles have BB wheels. When using them for power pick-up this increases your pick-up points to reduce flicker. I’m not an LGB user so I can’t comment on where to drill/wire the car. The photo below is how I wired pick-ups using Aristo Ball Bearing wheels on an Aristo/Delton reefer that was converted to a sound trail car.
Hi Curtis,
Not all of us have Jon’s deep pockets 
to be able to afford BB wheels on all the axles. I’m cheap and only put one or two BB wheels on my passenger cars. Then I add connectors between my cars to link them together. I use these -http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/CON-240/2-CONDUCTOR-LOCKING-CONNECTORS-W/-LEADS/-/1.html
If use two axles per car, use your outer spots for them. The greater the distance between them, the more likely they can traverse dead spots in the track.
Drill the holes as close as you can to the bolster without the wires getting pinched. Also be sure to leave enough slack to allow full turning of the truck.
-Brian
I have used the LGB wheels on my pass cars. I put one on the front car did like brian and hooked them all to gather with the last car having the other wheel set on it.
The first thing I did was put the wheels on and move the truck back and forth to see if it hit anything. I belive I had to move the wheel set to the inside of each truck so that it worked. the LGB wheel sets have the prongs sticking out and they were hitting on the front of the truck and hard to wire there. Once they were on the inside of the truck I dilled a small hole about 1/2 inch back and feed the wire through hooked it up and again moved side to side to check. I then stucked and stuffed the wire in the car to try and hide it the best I could as you look inside.
Good luck.
Geoff
Hi guys, I’m up and running now. I ended up putting two sets of ball bearing wheels with pickups near the outside on each car along with all metal wheels on the inside. So far everything seems to be working fine. Once I took the roof off of each passenger car I saw that there was already a hole in the floor which lined up with a hole in the center of the truck in order for me to run the wires to the pickup connections. The location of the holes in the floor and truck amde it obvious to use the ball bearing wheels on the outer most set. It’s very clean looking but cost me about $110 to do each of the two cars including the light kit. Ouch…I’m just starting in this hobby. I’m sure I’ll find some other nice, cost effective ways of doing some of this stuff.
I made my own lighting kits. I do use the LGB wheels, like them. I get replacement bulbs at the hobbie shop, a socket from Radio Shack and my sodering gun. put the wire on the socket, bulb in and hook it all up. a little glue holds it all in place. not as nice looking as the kits but works just as good and lots cheeper.
the cheaper way–if you have a bit of soldering skill–is to drill out the axle holes a bit and insert brass bushings. Then solder a wire to the edge of the bushing. You can buy the bushings as a replacement part from aristo. They are something like 8 for ten bucks. Much cheaper than BB wheelsets and I’ve found power pickup is quite good.
Also using a capacitor in the circuit reduces flicker, especially if the lights are leds