How to wheel swap Trackmaster Revolution

Just a few minutes ago attempting a wheel swap made my day go from great to depressing.. Has no one else tried wheel swapping an engine without siderods except for me yet??? Engines such as Philip have a front axle with only a few millimeters space between the wheels and chassis, and I can't fit the pliers between them or between the wheels and axle ends. I ended up having to destroy every single wheel on both axles to successfully remove the wheels, but I still can't get out the pins! I started about 2 and a half hours ago after I got home from a trip with Dad to Harbor Freight, where we got everything I thought was needed. Someone please help with some advice or another tutorial: specifically ones for characters like Philip, Diesel, and Freddie.
I really don't want to end up damaging the chassis even more: it's already got tons of ugly scratches and scrapes from what's been done so far, and Mom doesn't let me get multiples of anything.