Basics of disassembling a Lionel 2026 please

[Drew Beveridge]

My skills don't go that far, so is there a way to detach the motor from the smoke unit and when I want to get it back in attach it again because all I want to do is clean off the commutator.

[rtraincollector]

Tinplate I think he means the whole thing motor,frame,wheels not just the motor. the smoke unit shouldn't be holding it in you may need to remove the front end parts and may even need to remove the side rods. 

[Drew Beveridge]

I found that there is something slightly behind and underneath the cowcatcher that is keeping the smoke unit in. It is not screwed in because it's wiggling around, but will not come out.

[Drew Beveridge]

I know I'm posting a lot, but I really don't want to mess up on this. I found that I can detach the e-unit and let it hang, and that will let me get out the motor, but would that do something bad? I will not cut the wires, but letting the e-unit hang would give me just enough room to pull the motor up and out.

[JTrains]

Drew Beveridge

I found that I can detach the e-unit and let it hang, and that will let me get out the motor, but would that do something bad? I will not cut the wires, but letting the e-unit hang would give me just enough room to pull the motor up and out.

All things considered E-Units are pretty robust little things, so letting it carefully hang by the wires shouldn't cause any problems (assuming the wires' insulation isn't so brittle it cracks).  You might find it easier to unsolder at least one of the wires, but that's at your dscretion.