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Reply to "Restoring a Lionel PRR Prewar Steam Switcher & All Things Related to Keeping Them Running! Winter 2023"

MNCW posted:

Hi David, No problem with you adding posts and pictures of your locomotive..in fact, I would be glad if you can post more as you progress! Explain a little more on what you did with the e-unit, if you can. Did you need to rewind the coil? 

Tom 

Tom,  one of the units I had the coil wire broken off and the other had the threads for the shoulder screw stripped.  I decided to fix the e unit with the stripped threads.  This arrangement looks to my like a design error.  The shoulder screw that supports the ratchet/contact wheel threads into a piece of fiberboard. The threads are 3-56, way too fine to last in fiberboard. The shoulder screw can not be tightened against the fiber board or it will lock up the ratchet wheel.  So the  screw is screwed in far enough to give good operation of the ratchet wheel, then it is locked with a nut on the back side of the contact board.  The problem appears to be that the heads of the drive screws that attach the contacts to the ratchet wheel extend too far out and contact the fiber boarding if the screw is tightened against the shoulder.  Since my threads in the fiber board were stripped, my only option was the nut on the back side. I decided to try a fiber washer under the shoulder and provide clearance for the drive screw heads.  I found a washer with the correct ID that was .031 thick, but too big on the OD. So I turned the OD down.    Now I can put the shoulder screw in with the spacing washer, tighten the nut, and the ratchet wheel works fine without any adjustment  

The ratchet wheel is very nicely made.  I am no fan of drive screws, but Lionel drilled the holes all the way through so they can be knocked out with a small punch from the rear.  I sure wish I could find come spare contacts since it looks like they were made to be changed. The design looks just like the contacts on a manual reverse on a standard gauge locomotive, but in miniature. 

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