douglasarcher said:
Don,
Thanks for the tip. I opened the train and it looks perfectly clean around the engine can where the coils are. However, the axels are plastic and dry. Do they need oil too?
When I opened up the truck box where all the gears are, I found that there was a very thick and almost sticky type of oil. more like the type which is used in automobile shock absorbers. Is this normal? I haven't opened many trains before, but have read others on this forum saying that sewing machine oil is a good lubricator and the stuff I found clinging to the gears is definitely nothing like sewing machine oil. It's not a liquid at all, but more like lard and appears to have been smeared on.
Douglas, I have to ask for one. How is the motor mounted? (in the center with drive train to the trucks or right on the trucks)? This will help a little to find out what type of quality it is. The correct procedure for oiling. The gears really don't need oil on them. (something about it eats the plastic) The gears inside the trucks should be lubed with Teflon grease. LHS should have it in a small white tube with orange like writing called Labelle #106 Grease W/ PTFE*
(Teflon grease).
It doesn't take much because you don't want it to thick where dust and other objects can settle in it. These stuff is white in color and looks like "lard" but isn't sticky like you have mentioned. The lube being sticky in there is defiantly not good. For the worm gears (one on each truck tower {if any}) use either Labelle #108 Multi-Purpose Oil (Light Weight). How ever Sense I am in a club and I use my locomotives to pull 90+ (172 was the most we could) car trains I use #102 oil which is a bit heavier in weight do to the extreme pulling conditions.
If your operating on a layout to pull no more than 30-45 cars then the #108 would be best for you. Sometimes you also have to watch for a motor slinging solder. I've have to replace two motor already because the tiny wires coming from the armature to the brush pickup. Best thing to do is take it all apart and wash it all off in a bowl of luke warm water and a mild soap or thinned alcohol. I do both to make sure the parts a clean and lightly run a very small flat head screw driver threw every tooth of every gear to make sure there's nothing that will obstruct the gear movement.
Then I run the parts back into the bowl of thinned alcohol and run a tooth brush over every part (not the one you brush with) Go to Walmart and you can buy a pack of 3 or 5 for like a buck. I use a 75% alcohol 15% water mixture in a Glad bowl with a lid. Set it all on a paper towel, let dry, then wipe the insides of the trucks clean with paper towel and Q-tips or send them to the alcohol solution and gettum' clean.
Let dry and put the gears back in on one side then add a little grease to them and make sure it gets worked in and put them back together. It only takes me about 45 mins to clean two 6 axle locomotives from off the track to back on the track. After that little bit of maintenance it'll run like new. I do my locomotives about every 6 months do to the serious hours and scale miles they get.
I have now 3 (the forth one was wrecked a couple weeks ago) that have close to 3,000,000 scale miles on them from shows sense I bought them in early 01'. Our longest one runs anywhere from 2 weeks to 4 weeks where they run hard from 7am till 5 pm with occasional swap outs to let them cool. You should only have to do this every couple years depending on how dusty the house gets and how often you run. Hope this helps.