Lionel 675 Engine Repair

According to Granddad, the Lionel 675 Engine was the only o-gauge engine until he got the Santa Fe on his 10th birthday. 

About 70 years later the engine wasn't running, so it was time to get it back on track.

Issue: for the last 2-3 years it was difficult to get the engine to go. The workaround was to play with the switch on top (forward/neutral/reverse control switch) and hope it would start working. The problem continually got worse until last year we didn't get to use the engine at all.  

New Bushings

The old bushings were barely able to make contact with the aperture. Grease and grime was making the situation worse. So new bushings and a good cleaning were step 1.

the small black pieces were what was left after 70 years of service

E-Unit Repair

The e-unit is the brown solenoid (see pic above). When the power goes off, the magnet is de-activated and a metal rod inside the solenoid drops down due to gravity. When the power goes back on the magnet pulls the metal rod back up and it rotates a gear that selects forward/reverse/neutral. 

The issue was that there was too much gunk so gravity would not pull the metal rod back down. This put the train in a constant state of no-power neutral.

Some isopropyl alcohol to clean the rod and gear followed by a drop of oil did the trick.

In the process I detached the headlamp wire so I got to get my soldering kit out to repair it. There is also a wire that is not connected to anything. That wire is supposed to connect to the smoke unit, but I didn't reconnect it.

Here is a look at the insides before the repair

$10 and 2 days later the Lionel 675 is ready for next Christmas