I am attempting to learn how to repair older Lionel engines. The one area that I am having trouble with is removing the complete fibre “Shoe” from the older late 1940’s #2026 engines I own that have contact shoes rather than rollers. Is there a tool that can be purchased that will spread the frame just enought to remove this “shoe” without damaging it? Everything I have read about removing this piece involves using screwdrivers etc. This will damage the original parts which is what I don’t want to do.
Welcome Moe!
You don’t want to spread the frame. You’ll take the chance of damaging the axels or the frame.
I have a 1666, with the same fiber shoe assembly. It sounds like you have the correct method of dissassembly, which is to gently pry it out. I have done this a few times in an effort to get the correct tension on the shoe.
Kurt
Old Mo Hobo,
If I understand what you are trying to do, you need not be terribly concerned with damaging the old fibre contact plate because you are going to discard it anyway. As kpolak says, the caution is not to bend or “upset” the metal side panels of the motor beyond the point where they will spring back to their original positions. If it appeared that too much force was required, I would probably cut off the fibre tabs with a Dremel tool with a bit that would side-cut.
Getting the replacement plate in is perhaps a more difficult. There is a drawing at the top right corner of the link below showing a slight modification that you might make to some versions of your replacement fibre piece that would allow you to get the blade of a screwdriver in between the fibre piece and the metal side of the motor to provide a bit of very gentle “spreading leverage.”
http://pictures.olsenstoy.com/cd/locos/loc2034a.pdf
An additional step that I’ve heard of is to gently chamfer the top* corners of two of the tabs (on the same side of the fibre plate) a bit to help ease their way down inside the motor panel and into the slots. I don’t have any way of illustrating this except as follows:
||profile of tab before chamfer; |/ profile of tab after chamfer
The left side is inserted first, and then the chamfered right side is slid down the metal side until it pops in. The process might benefit from a second pair of hands. Hope this is comprehensible and of some help.
- In this example “top edges” mean the edges of the tabs that are facing down when you are working on an upside-down motor, as in the pic above.
Hello, I’m new here too. I’m also in the process of restoring a couple of 2026’s, one is the 2-6-2 version and the other a later 2-6-4 with roller pickups. I really didn’t have any choice on the older, slider shoe pickup as the fiber plate was severely warped & needed to be replaced anyway. I was successful with installing the new plate by using the “levering with a screwdriver” method. I also filed down the tabs by about half on the side I levered in, which I think was helpful.
I was talking with Jeff Kane (The Train Tender) last week about replacing the rollers on the other loco & he mentioned a spreader tool that he sells. Here’s a pic of the tool:
http://www.ttender.com/partphotos/index.html (click on + next to Tools, then click on small arrow next to Online Pictures, then click on ST350-FST.jpg)
You might want to give him a call for more info. Good luck with your project!
Big ditto on all the above advice on trimming the tabs before trying to put a new one back in on a 2026. I found that out the hard way. My advice is to trim them and then try each side to see if the tabs will fit ok. Then you should be able to lever them in with a flat bladed screwdriver. Grrenburg’s manual shows how to take them out with a flat bladed screwdriver as well by sticking the screwdriver in the slots and levering them out. I haven’t had much luck with that though.
Good Luck!
Mike