I never thought of checking the foam pad but then I forgot that it is meant to hold the various triggers in place. I'll have a look at that. It is original equipment.
The foam pad does more than hold things in place. It applies pressure to the locking mechanism.
On the last rebuild I did, I found it to be beneficial to slit the foam pad between the individual latches, so when the foam was compressed by one latch releasing, it didn't compress the foam under the next latch.
As I write this, I am wondering whether the foam pads that Lionel used on the reissues is too stiff. But if that was the case, the plunger wouldn't be able to pull in all the way, and rotate the cam shaft at lower voltages.
On the postwar version, the pivot pin for the pawl sticks out of the body for manual firing. You can watch it to see if the solenoid is pulling the armature in all the way.
