Hello,
I am working on a 1946 726 for out Xmas layout this year. The loco was running but I decided to give it the usual overhaul as I had no idea when the last time it was serviced was.
The loco has the large motor, sometimes referred to as the "Gold Seal." My question is this: How close should the armature face be to the brush plate? This thing is close! When I opened it up, a previous owner had glued some thin brass shims to the back of the brush plate to give it more clearance. It is not rubbing, but boy is it close. When looking at it inverted, the final lamination in the armature is past the final lamination of the field. Just seems odd to me. I looked very close behind it, and there does not appear to be any thrust washers between the armature and the bearing. I can just see the tip of the bearing protruding slightly from the housing. I do not see a way to remedy this....Did Lionel put thin washers between the housing and the field during assembly?
The p/o also shimmed all the bearings on the worm shaft and all the axle bearings giving the loco driveline zero play. Stiff!!! And it took a lot of power to run! I removed all the shims in addition to spending several hours scraping glue residue off. Thanks in advance for your help!!!
