Lionel-AF Northern Motor Mount Repair
Drive Gearing clearance is too tight.

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We have found an issue with many of the Lionel American Flyer Northern locos. The Motor's worm gear clearance is so tight that it is affecting the slow speed performance. The locos surges when started to overcome the drag.

There is no backlash play at all between the motor worm and the driver spur gear.

The motor mount is removed and modified so that it tilts down a  fraction of a degree to increase the worm clearance.
A small amount of metal is removed from the motor mount bottom and lower front to allow the rotation.

Only a small amount is removed at a time and then test fitted for backlash and bench tested to see that the drag is gone.

Once the modification is done the slow speed performance is greatly improved.

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