I have two {1938 and 1940} 3814 Merchandise cars. How does one get at the mechanism to repair it? How does it operate? Does one remove the roof, or the whole body from the frame? How does the cover over the solenoid come off? Can one operate the mechanism with the body off? Photos of disassembly and the mechanism, videos, and/or helpful advice would be greatly appreciated.
Recently I purchased one of these cars. There are SIX bend over tabs holding the entire shell to the chassis: one near each corner and one under each door in the center. Turn the car upside down and you will see them. Picture #1 Picture #3 is better. Un Bend them carefully! They will need to be perfectly straight in order to remove the shell. When you try to lift off the shell you will discover that the TWO brake wheel shafts that go through the chassis are preventing the shell removal. These were stamped at the factory. What you have is a square peg trying to go through a round hole. It's your call. I chose to grind down the sides of the bottom end of each shaft so that they fit through the round hole in the chassis. I used a Drumel tool. I didn't want to disturb the brake wheel. Having ground down the high places, the entire shell can be easily removed. The metal conveyors are attached to the shell. So don't be surprised ... like I was. NOTE: when reassembling, I do not bend the tabs back over to their previous position which was a 90 degree angle. I choose instead to twist the tabs SLIGHTLY; Just enough to keep the shell securely in place. At this point, the real fun begins. This is a complicated piece of machinery. If yours has the colorful decal, it's the 1939 version. Otherwise it's the 1940-42 version. So from the get go, you're dealing with an 80 year old mechanism. I ended up replacing all the wiring. I used 22 ga flexible wire. See picture #2 I hope you like to solder. Picture #5 shows the finished product. The operation uses a mechanism very similar to the post war operating milk cars. 
notice
The picture below shows the the two screws that will need to be removed to access the mechanism. You will want to lubricate the tumbler that the plunger pushes. REMEMBER: This is 80 year old plastic! Mine was frozen in place. After lubricating both sides of the tumbler, I spent the better part of an hour trying to free up the tumbler. using my FINGERS! The tumbler is under this metal plate. You can see the tumbler in picture 2.I
I hope this helps. I just joined the forum last week. All the best! Len
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