It's never failed for me. It's also non-destructive due to the weak shear strength of CA. You can knock the plate out quite easily if you need to disassemble later.
Rob
Rob,
I followed your suggestion and the loco now works perfectly! Thanks. Even with shims it rattled like crazy and the shims fell out. I cleaned it thoroughly and did the CA trick and now it is smooth. Thank you so much!
-Geoff
Thanks Rob,
I will give that a try. Sounds like great info!
I spent all day working and tinkering and I have had a blast.
The problem with these, as you have found, is that the lower bearing plate is floating in the stamped aluminum motor side frames as the factory staking has worked loose over the years. The old Lionel fix for this was to "dent" the side frames with a punch, some shops used cardstock jammed in to firm up the plate.
I have had good luck using tiny black anodized self-tapping screws into drilled pilot holes to hold the bearing in place.
For a non-destructive fix, my latest method, though, beats them all. Using the CRC QD or any non-residue contact cleaner, clean ALL oil & residue from between the sideframes & the bearing, using the nozzle to spray into the crevice. Dry it out well, several hours or overnight.
Now use the regular "thin"(not gel) CA adhesive("Super Glue", Eastman 910, etc.) and flow the cement into the crevice on both sides, letting it creep in by capillary action to fill the gap.
In about 10 minutes, the loco is ready to be lubed(grease on gears, oil on pivots & bearings/axles) and will run like new.
I fixed one of these locos using a pair of needle nose pliers. I gave the aluminum side plates a slight twist at the ends of the plastic housing. Quick and easy, and no disassembly is required.
I wouldn't try the center punch trick because of the possibility of breaking the plastic housing
I also had to shim the plastic plate at the base, and will pursue a better solution for that.
Nothing wrong with using a shim. I find that they usually will stay in place. Lionel's official recommendation was to use a *** punch to dimple the frame by the bottom bearing plate. But the dimpling is hard to adjust if one gets it wrong. Some people have reported that they've used superglue in where the metal plates join to tighten things up. I have restaked trucks to tighten them. But once again, if you get the alignment wrong, it's difficult to correct.
Well it is fixed. The ball bearing was still in the base, but the thrust collar was gone. So 3-#6 nylon washers later and it runs like a champ. I also had to shim the plastic plate at the base, and will pursue a better solution for that. But I am excited to get it running. I think my dad bought it in 1970 and the previous owner said it didn't work, so it has not been run for a long-long time. It is fun to get it back in action!
I cleaned it out thoroughly and the E-unit works just fine also.
Off to my next project - fixing two Alco A units and a B unit that someone powered. B unit has no E unit, but is slaved off one of the As...fun fun fun!
Thank you. I am looking forward to getting into this and those part numbers are very helpful. I'll let you all know what I find out.
Restoring these locomotives is a fun project.
There should be one or two thrust washers on the top armature shaft to limit upward movement.
600-129 is a plastic washerCON-8 is a metal washer.
Try the plastic one first. If there is still too much play, add a CON-8.
Any Lionel parts dealer should have them.
Thanks Larry!
That is just what I was looking for. I will disassemble tomorrow and get this figured out.
Geoff,
A bearing ball is shown on the bottom of the armature, and a thrust collar at the top. See here for an exploded view. Both are needed to keep the armature from moving up and down. Does your loco have both parts, and if not, you can order them.
Larry
This may be a confused post - so I am sorry.
My 601 has some problems and I am trying to fix it. It looks like the armature can float up and down. So when running the brushes "jump around" for lack of a better term. When I rotate the wheels by hand the armature pushes up before rotating. I am guessing the bearing on the bottom plate is maybe missing?
I knew it never ran well and my dad had never run it so I was shocked that when I put it on the track it ran...and the e-unit worked flawlessly. Which is certainly impressive given how I don't think it has been run in 40 years.
I have read some other posts on this issue, but wedging the bottom plate didn't fix the problem, so I was hoping to learn from everyones expertise.
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