Opening Up a METCA EMD SW8 #105 Demo Legacy Switcher

You might want to include the exact Lionel product number.  But... are you sure that the problem is too little play in the front truck, and not too much in the rear? There have been many posts on the Forum about Lionel diesel trucks made after 2016 or so, with excess side-to-side play affecting engagement of the spur gears.  If this is your problem, some people have fixed it by inserting a spacer between the wheel and truck on the opposite end of the axle (a modern version of the 736 "bread clip" mod!)  A more expensive approach would be to keep ordering new trucks from Lionel parts until they send  you one that is within spec.

Hopefully someone will chime in and provide detailed guidance on removing the shell.   Please keep us posted on what you find.

@Ted S Thanks. The Lionel number is 2133880. I didn't feel like going up in the hot attic yesterday to look at the box. As soon as I can figure out how to get into the trucks I'll check both gear sets.

Joe- Does this engine have the shaft-drive and single motor? I have a SW1200 and it had the same stalling issue.

I had to drop the trucks and clean and re-grease both. The factory kinda cheaped out on greasing these properly. And what little was there was bone dry. The shell doesn't need to be removed to drop the trucks.

Getting the universals back together and reinstalling the trucks is a bit tricky. Be prepared to swear a bit......

This was before new grease was applied. I also put a couple of drops of oil on the universal joint.

Bob

@RSJB18 Mine has the shaft -drive setup like yours. I tried twisting the truck off. I got the drive shaft to disconnect , but I can't seem to swing the truck enough to get it off. It hits the coupler and fuel tank and I can't get it to go any further. Maybe I needed to pull it off before it gets to that point. I'll try that in the future.

Bob, how far did you have to rotate the truck and in what direction?

However, I did resolve my issue. One of the traction tires bunched up at the top of the truck and got wedged against the truck. From the bottom everything looked normal. Another Forum member mentioned he had that issue so I did check for that. It was just very hard to notice at first.

@NJCJOE posted:

@RSJB18 Mine has the shaft -drive setup like yours. I tried twisting the truck off. I got the drive shaft to disconnect , but I can't seem to swing the truck enough to get it off. It hits the coupler and fuel tank and I can't get it to go any further. Maybe I needed to pull it off before it gets to that point. I'll try that in the future.

Bob, how far did you have to rotate the truck and in what direction?

However, I did resolve my issue. One of the traction tires bunched up at the top of the truck and got wedged against the truck. From the bottom everything looked normal. Another Forum member mentioned he had that issue so I did check for that. It was just very hard to notice at first.

These are not twist off trucks.

There is a single screw (the hole is just to the left of the worm gear).

Glad you found the problem.

Bob

I guess it would help if I remove the screw. Thanks Bob.