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I just took apart my 2026 for the first time and didn't pay attention to what goes where.  Everything is pretty intuitive except for the smoke lever and piston assembly.  None of the manuals I've looked at give much guidance on this.  I just don't see where the ends of the lever arm go?  Any help/pictures would be greatly appreciated.  

The motor runs like a top in forward after cleaning things up, new brushes and lubrication.  Strangely, it needs a push to get going in the reverse direction.  Once it gets going it runs well in reverse - just not quite as fast.  I'm trying to figure out where to start looking - gear wear, brushes, etc?  Any tips would be appreciated.

 

Thanks for the help!

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  • Smoke Lever & Piston Assembly
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There are a pair of small "U" shaped channels cast into the body for the smoke lever. I think they are raised, but I'd have to check a shell. If you place the piston into it's cylinder, the crank rod will just about drop into them if you move the crosshead guides out of the way. There are a pair of projections on the steam chest to hold the rod into the grooves. (So the smoke piston is installed before the steam chest).

Make certain the commutator is clean, and that the brush springs are good.
Also make certain the brush holders are clean.
A tip I picked up here: use a 22 gauge phosphor bronze gun bore cleaning brush on the brush holders. 

1  clean holders with a QTip moistened with mineral spirits
2 clean with bore brush
3 reclean with a new QTip moistened with mineral spirits.

If you rotate the QTip, the brush spring should move out of the way.
Be careful removing the QTips and brush.

 

Last edited by C W Burfle

Update - I finally pulled everything together and cleaned with bronze brush and mineral spirits.  Not much difference unfortunately.  It did look a lot better - was really able to get the grime off.  I took the train over to may father-in-laws and it ran perfectly.  Should've been watching the volts on the test track.  Looks like my 1034 transformer will need some work.  Thanks for the cleaning tips - definitely going that way in the future!

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