I had an early-version LL SW-8. It ran 'OK', once it got going, but the electrical pickup (mostly due to wheel material) was erratic through my yard. If I polished up the wheels EVERY TIME before I ran it it was OK, but other than that....big improvement over the original Rivarossi SW1500 at least. This isn't just the LL SW-unit, I've had similar problems with the GP20 and the Alcos. The softer wheel material (blackened) seems to corrode up slightly if the unit sits for a while. On first startup it's erratic, and as the wheels polish back out then it's fine again. You get better tractive effort, but at that price.
So I put the body (which was actually very nice) on the Kato chassis, worked fine, had to do a little dremel work but nothing significant. Mostly ACC up the entire body solid, remove some plastic here and there, take the pickup tabs off. But it does work.
Pulling power was about the same. But the electrical performance with the Kato pickups and wheels was significantly better, no more slow-speed stalling and it no longer needed constant cleaning. My Kato was a first run, has been great since the day I got it. I have two more LL chassis, and both are shelf queens. Kato slow speed is better, but not enough to justify the work. For me it was all electrical and worth it. Had nothing to do with worms, although I don't contest the issue.
Something sticks in my mind about changing the LL wheels over to NWSL ones, that would also likely solve the issue I had.
I've converted about a dozen of the Kato NW2's to SW1's for customers, all have run quite nicely and I have no idea why people seem to have trouble with them.
