That's what I have done in the past. Just be careful and go a little at a time, alternating front to back so to prevent getting the wheels askew.
In my experience, it's even more awkward trying to press them closer together.

For tender/pilot/trailing truck axles, I'll remove the from the truck if I can, and then press from the INSIDE. Most screw drivers won't span the gap between the backs of the wheels, so I will lightly grip the axle between the wheels with a pair of pliers (parallel jaws are best, not tapered needle noses) with the pliers against the back of one wheel, and then use a small screwdriver wedged between the pliers and the other wheel. Slightly twisting the screwdriver will wedge the wheel out. Again, go slow and careful!

Thanks for your reply... I assumed that the track L and track R power was carried from the chassis to the tender entirely by the drawbar contact wires (which connect the two sides of the chassis to the pickups on the first tender truck). There are five insulated wires in the harness in addition...

I will open it up and look at some point... just trying to put that off as long as possible. I am just in the planning and acquisition phase of my tender replacement project, and likely won't actually start until after the holidays. Fitting the decoder and speaker into such a small space is going to be a challenge...

I am in the planning stages of swapping the tender on my Soundvalue 2-8-0 for a vandy tender I purchased on eBay. This will require installing a decoder (probably a Tsunami 1100-2) and speaker in the new tender, and then running motor power (2 wires) and headlight power (2 wires) from the decoder in the tender to the loco.

Can anyone tell me what the 5th wire between the stock tender and loco corresponds to? There are five wires... I would guess that two are from the decoder to the motor, and two are from the decoder to the headlight. But what is the 5th wire? Ground?
Thanks,
Dave

Well, I mounted an MTL 1015 to the front pilot of my 2-8-0 last weekend. Had to mount it a little farther forward than I would have liked, in order to clear the pilot truck. That's even with substantial shaving of the back end of the 1015 coupler housing.

The older pilot does fit the new 2-8-0... However, the side ladders, stanchions for the coupler release bar, and air hose now appear to be glued or heat-welded to the pilot. Although I was able to remove the air hose easily, I worried that trying to remove the ladders of coupler release bar would destroy them. So I ended up mounting the coupler to the original pilot. I'll post pics later...

Thanks Mark!

Do you (or does anyone) know if the pilot for the pre-2017 N-scale 2-8-0 will fit the recent released version? Part numbers on-line are 811XX-00K03 (pilot only) or 811xx-00H03-00F01 (pilot w coupler and brake release bar)? Or, when parts for the new 2-8-0 will be available?

I would like to mount a functioning coupler on the front pilot of my 2-8-0, and am always hesitant to start cutting up an engine unless I have a replacement part in case I screw it up.

Thanks!

Walthers now lists them as due 31 Mar 2018.