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There must be a trick to this!

I got the motor out with some effort, cleaned it up and repaired it. Now it runs. BUT for the life of me, I cannot get the bugger back into the body of the engine.

The forward  motor spreader post has a tap hole to be screwed to the boiler while resting in the curved fitting pictured:

2036 motor top redlined

Fine and dandy.  Now the back end of the motor has  notches to accommodate the  bar support, pictured

2036 loco72resredlined

That's fine and dandy too. Now the culprit: the small matter of the switch for the reversing unit (circled in the picture). You cannot fit the motor's notch around the bar support and seat the motor without the reversing unit switch scraping inside top of the boiler. It  can't reach it's slot. There is no room. (You can see some scrape marks in the top photo.)

Now I have a loosened switch to the reversing unit too!

Could some good soul please show me the solution to this before I resort to chocolate?

Thanks!

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  • 2036 motor top redlined
  • 2036 loco72resredlined
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A million thanks, TN, Joe, and SL! I used a fine punch and hammered it out on the first hit. Who'dathunk? I was afraid of fracturing the cast body, but your advice emboldened me to get the job done easily. Thank you all!

Any thoughts on how to tighten the reversing unit lever I loosened trying to get it in the wrong way? There is no screw. It looks riveted. Perhaps squeeze with  long nose pliers? Not much clearance with the coil there.

Any thoughts on how to tighten the reversing unit lever I loosened trying to get it in the wrong way? There is no screw. It looks riveted. Perhaps squeeze with  long nose pliers? Not much clearance with the coil there.

Use a horse shoe washer. (Or some other thin washer with a slot cut out to fit around the lever's mounting rivet)
Either:
Slip it between the fiberboard contact plate and the metal body of the e-unit
Slip it between the spring washer (Usually black metal with four slots) and the e-unit lever.

I find tightening the rivet to be pretty much impossible without breaking down the e-unit. And once I do that, the whole thing is taken apart, cleaned, and the pieces get run through a vibratory polisher (except the coil). Then reassembled with a fresh rivet for the switch handle.

Note: some folks move the contact end of the switch handle away from the fiber board and bend it a bit with a pair of pliers. That works, I did this myself many years ago. Then I decided that doing this made a permanent change that couldn't really be backed out later. Even straightened, the arm would always look like it had been bent.

Last edited by C W Burfle

A million thanks, TN, Joe, and SL! I used a fine punch and hammered it out on the first hit. Who'dathunk? I was afraid of fracturing the cast body, but your advice emboldened me to get the job done easily. Thank you all!

The cracks show up from time to time (rare!).
You can lessen the possibility by being certain to line up the grooves on that pin with the grooves already cut into the hole in the body when reassembling.

C W Burfle posted:

Any thoughts on how to tighten the reversing unit lever I loosened trying to get it in the wrong way? There is no screw. It looks riveted. Perhaps squeeze with  long nose pliers? Not much clearance with the coil there.

Use a horse shoe washer. (Or some other thin washer with a slot cut out to fit around the lever's mounting rivet)
Either:
Slip it between the fiberboard contact plate and the metal body of the e-unit
Slip it between the spring washer (Usually black metal with four slots) and the e-unit lever.

I find tightening the rivet to be pretty much impossible without breaking down the e-unit. And once I do that, the whole thing is taken apart, cleaned, and the pieces get run through a vibratory polisher (except the coil). Then reassembled with a fresh rivet for the switch handle.

Note: some folks move the contact end of the switch handle away from the fiber board and bend it a bit with a pair of pliers. That works, I did this myself many years ago. Then I decided that doing this made a permanent change that couldn't really be backed out later. Even straightened, the arm would always look like it had been bent.

Brilliant, C.W.!  I'd never have thought about the horse shoe washers. Improvise, adapt, and overcome!

Regards,

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