I got the oil for the Athearn BB engine, but where to put it?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I recently got a few Athearn Blue Box engines, that run nice but need some lubing. On the recomendation of a person at my LHS, I bought some labelle Light oil, but I don’t know where to put it! Does anyone have a website or can expain to me where I should put some of the oil, preferable with step by step pictures?

I’d appreciate any help anyone can provide, as I’m stuck on this problem.

Noah

2

How far back does your MR goes? See June 2002
Care & feeding diesel locos.

3

Chuck, thanks, I can get a hold of that at my Local Library. I’ll be sure to check it out.

Thanks again,
Noah

4

I recently bought a collection of oils and lubes in one convenient packaging, which has a variety of lubes, money worth spent.

You should use plastic compatible, or it will eat on it.

motor, gear trains, any spot where something turns against a static area such as axles.

5

One of the most important things, besides using plastic compatible oils and greases (which work just fine on all metal models, so why risk it? Sounds like you got the Labelle pack that has 3 different lubes in it, I have the same stuff. Good stuff), is to use it SPARINGLY. One TINY drop is PLENTY. Too much lube and it srays around the inside of the loco shell, and gets all over the track. Once it’s all over other things, when you handle the loco you end up getting it on the outside of the shell too.
I recently installed DCC in my father in law’s P2K SD7, which he purchased a long time ago but has never before now had a chance to run. It was VERY noisy, I thought it had the P2K ‘cracked gear’ syndrome, so I started tearing it down to isolate which truck, front or back, had the bad gear. Note that disassembly on most P2K is a real PITA because they inside on making one of the weights go AROUND the pickup wires - to remove it completely you have to undo the wires. The other weight is completely inside the wires and seperates easily. Anyway, when I popped the worm gear covers off to dropt he trucks, it was CAKED with grease in there. There was enough grease in the thing to lube a dozen locos. I cleaned out the excess and put it back together - sure enough, it ran quietly.

–Randy

6

Thanks to both of you for the advice, I will most definately keep this in mind when I tackle this project soon.

Noah