Engine Disassembly
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Chicago & Northwestern Class E Pacific

Engine Disassembly

By Tom Farin

Top Side Disassembly

Disassembling the engine is an even scarier proposition than disassembling the tender.  First, before attempting this, it is a good idea to get organized.  I purchased a 15" by 10" plastic box from Home Depot for $5.  It has lots of interior partitions to hold parts and closes up tightly.  As I removed parts from my Pacific, I placed them into these compartments and tossed a piece of paper containing notes of where the parts came from.  I'll dedicate this box to my Pacific through this project.  Tools needed include a #0, #1 and #2 Phillips screwdriver along with a nice bright flashlight. Also a carpeted floor is not a good idea (I violated this rule).  If one of the tiny screws is dropped, you will have a devil of a time finding it.

 Begin by removing the piping and air tanks below the running board.  This will make it easy to get at the screws holding the cab and boiler to the bottom part of the engine.  In my case, I plan on reworking these parts to more closely resemble the prototype.  So I have no plans to reinstall them at this point.

This picture shows the under side of the running board with piping, air tanks, and the top portion of the running gear removed.  The picture would be similar on the other side of the engine.
The cab is held to the running board by four screws that can be reached from the underside of the board.  My screw driver is inserted in the front screw.  The rear screw is visible immediately to the right.  Remove all four screws (two are on the opposite side).
Remove the cab by pulling straight up.  I popped the left and right cab windows out of the cab to make this easier.  Some pressure will be required.  This shot shows the cab after removal.  Removing the cab exposes the backhead.  Both a cab light and a firebox light are attached to or immediately adjacent to the backhead.  It is NOT necessary to remove the backhead to remove the boiler.  Two screws accessible from the bottom allow its removal.  I'd leave it on.  If you remove it, it will be attached to the bottom by the wires to the cab light.  Having it flopping around as you proceed will increase the risk that you might pull the wires away, disabling the lights.
Five screws hold the boiler to the bottom of the engine.

The first pair of screws are located immediately above the rearmost driver, one on each side.  Remove these two screws.
The second pair of screws is located underneath the running board immediately to the right of where the running board drops in elevation.  You can see the very tip of the screwdriver pointing to this hole immediately above the vertical silver rod in this shot.  

Remove these two screws.
The final screw is located on the top of the boiler just behind the smoke stack.  Remove this screw.

The boiler should lift easily off the engine at this point.
This shot shows the boiler removed.  In the top portion of the photo, you are looking at the inside of the boiler.  In the bottom portion, you are looking at the engine from the top with the boiler and cab removed.  The backhead is still in place on the far left.  Immediately to its right (black box with protruding wires) is the can motor and shaft running down to the drivers.  To the right of that (silver) is the weights.  Finally, immediately to the left of the smoke box is the circuit board controlling the smoke unit.
 

Bottom Side Disassembly

In this series of steps, front and back truck and drivers will be removed.

Removing the rear truck is a matter of removing two screws, one being pointed to by the screwdriver (#1 Phillips), and the other screw immediately to its right.  Take care in removing the screw pointed to by the screwdriver.  Behind it you will find a spring, and a second washer.  Once both screws are removed, the tender will still be attached to the engine by a pair of black wires connecting the tender electrical pickups to two posts on the top side of the engine.
Once the rear truck has been removed, the draw bar can also be removed by sliding it off the post shown in the middle right part of this photo.  In this shot, the two wires from the truck have been disconnected from the terminals on the top side of the engine.  You may want to keep them connected as removal would require resoldering them to the posts.  

The ash pan can be removed by removing three screws.  One of the three is pointed to by the screwdriver.  One of the other two is shown in the bottom right quarter of the photo.   The other is directly above it.    
Removal of the motor block requires that the main drive rods be disconnected from the cylinders.  I disconnected them at the cylinder ends by removing the two screws holding them to the piston rods.  Then remove the four screws holding the drivers to the frame.  Two are shown on the far left side of the photo.  They are the lower screws just to the right of the motor.

On the front side remove the lower pair of screws.  One of the two is pointed to by the screwdriver. 
In this shot the driver block has been removed.  A connector (two red pieces) can be pulled apart (as shown in this photo to separate the driver block from the lower part of the engine.  You can see the main drive rods are still attached to the driver block.
This photo shows the top side of the driver block.  The wires connecting the motor block to the bottom part of the engine have been removed in this shot.  You will want to leave them attached unless you are doing a battery installation.

The front truck can be removed by unscrewing the screw pointed to by the screwdriver in this photograph.  It will remain attached to the engine by the two wires feeding power from the truck to the engine.
 

The engine can be reassembled by reversing the above steps.  Your Pacific was shipped with an exploded parts diagram.  Keep it nearby so you can identify parts by name and see how the engine components fit together.

(c) 2007 Iron Horse 1:29