Real sluggish and makes a grinding/screaming sound. Would this be as simple as brushes?
I gave everything a quick spraydown with Liquid Wrench dry lube. It got quiet and ran great for about 10 seconds and then started screaming and whining again. Won’t get out of its own way. I gotta fix it myself, so we need to do good here. All the gears and teeth look very good.
Also, should I be able to look through the back of this thing and see the motor? My 2037 is eclosed with the fire box doors.
Thanks in advance guys. I couldn’t wait till it got here and now I’m between heartbroken and pissed beyond belief. Ebay’r with 100% feedback…
Whoa, slow down. First thing I would do is dis-assemble the engine so you can see and get to the motor. Next get some alcohol and a lot of cotton swabs and start cleaning everything up, including what you sprayed in there. Give everything a good cleaning with alcohol. Remove the brush-plate and clean the tubes the brushes go into and the brushes. Use a pencil eraser to clean the face of the armature. Re assemble and grease the gears, oil the wheel bearings. Put a drop of oil on both ends of the armature shaft (probably where your grinding/screaming is coming from.), and then try and run the motor, without the shell. I don’t know what the dry lube is or how it will affect the e-unit, but e-units are usually pretty touchy about any kind of lube.
Yes, you should be able to see the back of the motor through the cab.
I wouldn’t get too upset with the seller unless he stated that it ran great. Whenever I buy an old train off e-bay, I expect to have to clean and re-lube it.
I can probably walk you through it, and if nothing else, I have a spare motor for that engine…
Some of the noise could be coming from the brushes, and you might consider replacing the old ones (especially if they are the original sintered-copper) with the newer softer all-carbon ones, but I doubt it will do much about the noise. Good idea to replace them anyway. Always replace the springs when you replace the brushes.
I would not have used your choice of lubricant, but it may be possible to learn something from your experience. Sometimes, the little shafts that the spur gears rotate on will develop enough slop so that the gear teeth actually rub on the shiny panels of the motor housing, or on other gears, especially if the gears are “stacked” and/or the wheels have excessive side-to-side travel.* Also check out the area around the cylinders where the smoke linkage slides back and forths. Make sure the inside of the wheels are not touching anything when they turn, and finally that both sides of the armature are running smoothly.
On a loco of this vintage I would use a sparing but thorough coating of Lucas Red ‘n’ Tacky #2 grease on all of these moving parts, particularly BETWEEN the gears and the motor casing. I’m going on the assumption that the dry-lube did the job momentarily, but had neit
Worn-out armature bearing on the brush-plate (left) side. It’s just a hole in the masonite brush plate. See whether you can’t wiggle that end of the armature shaft back and forth. I suspect you’ll need a new brush plate, 2035-132 or 226E-62.
Your answer is in your first post. The brushplate end of the armature shaft is dry (again). You answered it when you stated you sprayed it with the wrench and it got quiet and ran fine for 10 seconds. That brushplate is an engineered composite material common during that time. Once it gets dryed out , that armature will squeal and of course it runs like dodoo. The trick is to get that brushplate to "suck up some lubricant to keep the armature lubed, but KEEP it OFF the brushes and brush wells. Of course make sure your brushes are good and clean, same for the commutator face and clean any gunk from between the copper segments.
Seems as though I have noticed that depending on which year instruction manual you look at, you may be told to oil or grease particular axle bearings etc. Key point is keep it lubed but don’t overdo it. You will need to lube it often as the manuals state (every couple of hours run time).
My personal opinion on the engine from ebay, unless you bought it as JUST serviced, I would EXPECT to need to service it once I got it. I would not be surprised if it ran for a while just fine and then required service. I try to assume the seller knows noth
The problem is that Wildhorse stated that he sprayed “everything,” with lubricant, which didn’t narrow it down much. Bob Nelson also suspects a worn brushplate, and a very dry one would likely to have contributed to such wear. (I think that some of those early brushplates were made of “phenolic,” which sounds like an adjective, as in “Phenolic resin” but is used here as a noun. Certain nouns, such as “mice,” have indeed been known to squeak now and again.) See ref. at Wikipedia.org.
If lubing the present brushplate (or replacing it) does not work one should look for metal to metal contact. A “proper” lube, repeated at sensible intervals, might just take care of it.
The 2035 was my first second-hand loco and the first I ever tore down. No idea how much mileage it had when I got it, but mine’s still running well after forty years under my " tender lovng" care.
Oil and grease will help diagnose the problem but its not a fix. When the phenolic bearing wears enough it will just push the lubricant out, sometimes in just a few seconds. If you don’t have a metal lathe the only recourse is to get a new brush plate. I prefer to make a new bearing out of either brass of better yet bronze similar to the one on the drive side. A new bearing can be fitted to the armature shaft which may be worn itself and still fit loose in a new brush plate. I have read that one of the commonly used replacement brass rivets will fit the armature shaft and can be used as bearing but can’t help with a part number. Maybe someone else has heard of this? Pete
Just so we are clear, I only sprayed it AFTER it didn’t want to move. So it did help in the diagnosis.
OK.
This was my first time ripping into one. Got it apart and alcohol and Qtips went EVERYWHERE!
Now, I don’t usually feel good unless I find something, and something I did. The plate was NOT set down on the recessed threaded “studs”. It was sitting crooked. It did not come loose, however. Both screws were tight. SOMEBODY DIDN’T KNOW WHAT THEY WERE DOING!!! So I pulled it and cleaned and cleaned and lubed EVERYTHING that needs lube.
Now it runs perfect and pulls (i hate to say it) better than my 2037!
Thanks everyone.
BTW,
The guy in Ebay listed it as C-6 Very Good Condition.
He also stated that it and the tender were in “good working order”. So, no, I wasn’t asking too much. I bought my dad his 2026 and it ran perfect. The tender has a wire broke off and the whistle sounds like a wounded cow on the highway. I still have to take it apart yet.
The odds are that proper lubrication is the fix, and the 2035 does not need to have the brushplate replaced. My favorite lubrication for those brushplate armature holes is labelle #106 grease. In my experience, it is usually the bearing on the opposite (gear) end that causes the screeching sound. I usually apply one of the thicker Labelle oils on that end.
Let me clarify the grease issue. If you lubricate the bearing and the squealing does not return within 5 minutes, then lubrication is the solution. If the squealing returns, the bearing surface is oversize and needs to be renewed. In my experience if the noise is excessive and speed is down, the bearing is worn and needs to be serviced. Pete