Dapol A4 tyres the easy way

[stmartins]

Having spent hours of patience fitting tyres to my Dapol A3 I decided there must be an easier way to carry out this awkward job.
My A4 decided to "grow" its tyres and one of them came off so I set about working out how to replace them.
1 You need to grind down the tool supplied by Dapol as it wont clear the linkage behind the crankshaft bolt, then remove the bolt
2. Get an old credit card cut it into a slither 6mm x 25mm then fold it in half so its a V shape.
3. Grind down a small screwdriver to 2mm and flat up to 5mm up the shaft
4. Use the screwdriver to gently push it over the top of the wheel and then push the V tool inside the valance to hold it in place, once the top is held it easy to gently ease the tyre round with the flat blade of the screwdriver and its that simple , it took about 10 minutes each side.
On refitting the bolts life is made easier by a little vaseline to hold the crank bolt in the socket.
I noticed the gap on one side of both locos is not the same so one side you can use the "V" to hold the tyre on the top it but the other side you need to open the "V" as both pieces will not fit.
It really makes a difficult job simple and I hope others will benefit