H.O Athern engine

jej34

New Member
Hello, I just recently received a setup with several engines. These engines are Athern H.O. They have never been run and are about 15 years old. I tried them, they work perfectly but, I am sure they need some sort of oiling after sitting all those years. As I said they are brand new. I bought a maintenance kit which included oil. I am not to sure how/where to applie the oil. I am a gas engine rebuilder and I don't see a crankcase fill LOL.
Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Joe
 
Hello jej34. Well to get them started thay do need oiling i am sure. This is the way i do it. on most older athearn engines there is a cover that comes off the bottem of the wheel truck. Should snap on and off take that cover off and you can see the gears in the trucks. next if you got greese in the kit use that One thing never use a greese that is not made for plastic it will eat the gears and stuff up. Ok greese the gears and turn them to get the greese up to the others. You dont need to put a lot of greese on them as it will just sling it off. then the light oil in the kit is for the bearings in the motor. Here again dont put much on them it will get all over the place and in the brushes and make the engine smoke until it burns it off. Now you wont need to do this but about every 6 months unless you run them a lot. Then you mite wont to add a little to them. Good luck with your new hobbie and let us know how it turns out.
 

jej34

New Member
trainnut65 said:
Hello jej34. Well to get them started thay do need oiling i am sure. This is the way i do it. on most older athearn engines there is a cover that comes off the bottem of the wheel truck. Should snap on and off take that cover off and you can see the gears in the trucks. next if you got greese in the kit use that One thing never use a greese that is not made for plastic it will eat the gears and stuff up. Ok greese the gears and turn them to get the greese up to the others. You dont need to put a lot of greese on them as it will just sling it off. then the light oil in the kit is for the bearings in the motor. Here again dont put much on them it will get all over the place and in the brushes and make the engine smoke until it burns it off. Now you wont need to do this but about every 6 months unless you run them a lot. Then you mite wont to add a little to them. Good luck with your new hobbie and let us know how it turns out.

Ok, I just looked at my engines and I do see the covers on each of the trucks,
Thanks so much for your help and I am sure I will have more questions LoL

-Joe
 

shaygetz

Active Member
You can't ask for a better, easier engine to work on then an Athearn:thumb: Trainnut's got you covered, I would only add that there are bearing points at either end of each gear tower where the worm shaft rides. Pop a drop at each of these points as well.
 

jej34

New Member
Ok, thanks. The rectangular caps on the trucks seem to have four clasp type retainers. Do you know if you need to squeeze each pair togther or if the cover plate needs to be lifted off of each catch?

Thanks a lot

-Joe
 

shaygetz

Active Member
Those would be the newer ones and tough little boogers they are. You'll have to carefully finagle them with a very small flat jeweler's screwdriver in any way that doesn't break them.:eek:ops: They're much more secure than the older ones that simply hooked over each end but alas, with progress comes complication.:rolleyes: I remove the trucks myself then come down either side to undo the clips from the top.
 
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