Well, they’ve run for over 3000 scale miles and need some oil. Where do I oil the horizontal motors in my 2353s. There is a hole between two screws on each motor over what looks like the gears. Is this where I drop in the oil? How much oil?
Thanks
The main bearings/bushings get a few drops of oil and the main gear train neads a light coating of grease (Lubriplate). There is a vertical oil port on the motor housing just behind the windings for the field coil. The second bearing is just inside the gear at the “back” of the motor. The other points that need oil are where the axles go through the housing for the truck. A little oil/grease goes a long way. Too much and it starts oozing out and goes where you don’t want it to.
There are a couple of guides for servicing the trains, one is a Kalmbach publication by Ray Plummer, Beginners Guide to Repairing Lionel Trains.
Thanks for the help. They seem to be running better but on the track plan I layed out they slow and start at certain points (even by the lockon). I know Ill need feeders when I finalize the plan and put it on a table, but the fact that my other engines barely slow down at all bothers me. The other engines I tested were a 726 and 2025. Is this due to the increased amperage drawn by the twin motors? The weird thing is they will run great for a while then on the same path run poorly.
Check your wiring harness and see if the pick up rollers are heating up. You may have an electrical problem that is causing the slow downs and not a mechanical problem.
The rollers do heat up and I do smell something different from the normal ozone smell. Seems to be getting worse so Im going take them to the LHS.
John,
Rollers sometimes become warm or hot after extended operation due to the arcing between the roller and the rail. The smell worries me though. what did it smell like?
The rollers were warm after a minute or so, not hot but warm. The smell smelled like an electrical short of some sort.
The wiring harness usually uses insulated stranded wire. There is a chance that a solder joint was not done properly (cold joint) or that some of the strands in a piece of wire are broken. This is more of an issue on the horizontal motored units as the motor itself swings along with the truck in turns and this movement is more pronounced on the horizontal motors. If there solder joint is bad or the wires are making/breaking contacts you could get increased heat/electrical resistance.
Took it to the LHS where I bought them. They took them apart and noticed the e unit was getting hot. It even sparked at one point. Temporarily installed a repro e unit and they worked fine. They are going to replace a few parts in the e unit rather than installing the repro so the engines remain all original. Should be ready in a week.
Thanks for the update. Keep us posted on the repairs.
Got the engines back a few days ago and they work great. The repairman wanted to use original parts to fix the e unit rather than using a repro so the repair took a little longer. It was worth the wait! The e unit quietly cycles and the motors run smoother than ever. They didnt charge me a cent even for the origional parts used. After reading the recent posts on broken items not being properly repaired I say Lionel and MTH should go down to THE TRAIN STATION in MOUNTAIN LAKES, NJ and take some notes on customer service.