The claw had to go! I built a pad to mount the Kadee 740 coupler to, and the entire assembly is attached to the tender frame with screws so that when/if you need to remove the shell from the frame, the Kadee stays in place and does NOT interfere with the removal. The hardest part of the whole process was getting the electro claw off, as the truck had to be removed from the frame. In order to get to the "e" clip, you have to take off the speaker enclosure, but it's all one piece and held on with 4 screws.
I used black RTV to re-seal the speaker enclosure where the wire harness comes through. Lionel had hot glue there that had to be pulled off. The space was built using a .050 spacer on the frame to create a level surface to mount the coupler pad. The pad itself is .125 sheet styrene that I cut to fill the gap on the back of the tender shell. This is the bottom of the pad, showing the spacer, and the frame was drilled and tapped to mount it to.
Kadee 740 coupler with metal draft gear box, ground down for clearance to allow the truck to pivot. The coupler is then attached to the pad with 3/8" screws. The same 3/8" screws will attach the pad w/ coupler to the tender frame.
I then had to add a .030 shim between the coupler draft gear box and the big pad to lower the height a bit more.
You can see how the styrene fills in the gap at the rear of the tender shell. That gap was there to allow the claw to swing from side to side as the truck pivots. No longer needed with the Kadee.
Some touch up paint with Scalecoat II Engine Black, and it's ready for service.
Just a bit of silver on the tip to represent the glad hand.
You can see the coupler has 2 screws that attach it to the mounting pad. The pad is attached with 2 screws to the frame. A generous amount of paint here will keep the screws from vibrating loose, but yet will all come apart if needed. Otherwise, remove the 6 screws that hold the shell to the frame, and the shell will come off with the coupler/pad still attached.
