Lionel 601 Motor Problem

For complete assemblies, eBay is your best bet.

To find out if the CA glue trick will work, the only experimentation you have to do is to pinch the side frames together with your fingers while the motor is running. Try it in both directions. You will notice that the motor runs like new when the lower bearing/housing is held from moving at all.

I know this is an old topic but there are still a lot of these in service. On a recent one (#621 Jersey Central) purchased at a Greenberg show, the armature was binding intermittently. I tried realigning the plastic lower piece and adding shims to the armature but the issue persisted. After numerous attempts, I noticed that the actual aluminum frame was a bit loose. To re-stake these frames requires wheel and side frame removal to get to all the staking locations. The side frames were loose and removed easily. likewise the wheels came off without too much effort. I carefully re-staked the motor frame, reassembled the wheels and axles and re-staked the side frames (these did stay a bit loose). After resoldering the E-unit wires and the field connection (which came loose) and re-installing the motor truck, the chassis operated very well.

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Welcome vbertolina! And thanks for the tips!