I know this tender has been covered several time is this forum, but there is one question I can't find an answer for: How much up and down play is excessive?
First, some background. I haven't used the tender (ca. 1956) in 40+ years, and when I took it out I decided to oil it up first and clean the wheels, rollers, etc. When I tried to run it, it made a racket, whistled for a second then slowed down and sped up and sometime bound up. The side play was practically perfect so I separated the motor from the whistle box and noticed the bottom of the box was scored by the impeller. I tried pushing the impeller down on the shaft, but it didn't seem to move. Took out my caliper and measured about 0.070" vertical play. Took the impeller off and the motor ran, a little noisy, but not like before.
So the two-part question is: how much vertical play is too much, and is there a fix? I didn't take the brush plate off and remove the armature yet, so I can't tell what's happening in the armature well.
There's a local train swap meet this Sunday, so if anyone has a suggestion I can buy parts then.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Joe
