What does line-reamed mean???

[Anonymous]

I working on rebuilding a 6466W tender. The whistle was chattering loudly even after cleaning and oiling. I'm thinking of replacing the brass bushing/bearing in the motor frame casting. However, the service manual recommends not replacing the bushing because its line-reamed with the casting and brush plate. It seems to imply that a jig and a reamer is required to replace the bushing.

Any help or suggests would be appreciated.

[3railguy]

What it means is the castings were first assembled as blanks amd set in jigs. Next the holes for the bushings (or the bushings themselves) were reamed (drilled out) for the armature shaft ends. This was for perfect alignment preventing the shaft from binding. I don't know of any proper procudures off hand but if it were me, I would try driling out the holes on a drill press with a machinists vise. This practice is not as common as it used to be beause of digital alignment of parts

[SPFan]

If you have a drill press, you might want to try this. Remove the armature from the frame and reassemble the frame. Find a drill bit that just fits into both bearings and place it into the drill chuck with the shank end out. Locate the frame in a vise and move it around until the bit slides into both holes easily, then clamp everything down. Your holes should be reasonably alligned with the drill press chuck. Now replace the drill with one to accomodate your new bearings and drill out the old bearings. Check to make sure the armature shafts are sliding fit in the new bearings. If they are too tight you might have to drill or ream them out to fit the armature. Remove the clamp only after you are confident of the fit.. Postwar Lionel was not made to precision specs so you should be able to get away being a few thou. off.

Pete

[Anonymous]

Thanks John and Pete!