While you may have gotten away with it, I would never recommend putting the motor itself in water. The universals come apart easily enough, and then all of the gearing can be washed out. In fact I’d suggest soaking the gears in warm water with some Dawn type dish soap, rather than using runnign water - would really had to have a gear get flushed down the sink. Once they’ve soaked for a while, usually you can just clean off the grease with your fingers, but a soft toothbrush would help. If the loco is one of the Geeps prone to cracked gears, don;t even bother witht he wheelsets and the axle gear, just pull the wheels off and get a new set of Athearn gears. Dry it all off, then reassemble and use a SMALL amount of plastic safe lubricant like Labelle. The grease on the gears, the light oil on bearing surfaces. It only takes a SMALL amount, no need to try to pack the whole gear tower the way it was from the factory.Too much will drip out and make a mess - I’ve dealt with some Bachmann locos where it was just shear luck the oil didn;t get on the body shell, but the bottom of the packing and the bottom cover on the trucks were just totally greasy with oil. Wiped the loco off, and cleaned out the box, and in a short time the bottom cover was once again oil soaked. Only stopped after taking it all apart and cleaning it all and then applying sparing amounts of fresh lubricants. Gotta wonder sometimes. I think I prefer to mimic the oil and grease stains down the center of the track with paints, and not actual grease and oil dripping from my locos.
It sounds like these were heavily used and a worn really good. Like it was a moving display. Mulitple problems at the trucks and motor. Sounds like the cracked gears went unattended for a long period. Causing alignment issues to develop through the entire drive train. Most likely wear on the gears shafts has them out of round along with thier bearing points and worm
gear thrust washers and bearing worn. As everything in the gear tower runs out of alignement, it throws the drive shaft out wearing those bearings. Of course that wears the commutator uneven too. Wouldnt surprise me other parts are damaged.
from the list of problems you mentioned, i would say they are off a display and never saw maintenance or repair
I take old noisy Proto GPs apart. I set the light board aside. Trucks down to the gears and individual parts. Motors separated from the frame. Drive lines tak
I figured you were just talking about the gears and gear towers, but the motor too?
I suppose, as long as it gets completely dried out. Maybe the air compressor from the air brush, or a can of the compressed air might help get all the water out.
Its just metal and plastic and a simple wound motor… The water isn’t really going to short anything out after most of the water is removed. Its not like I’m running current through it under a sink.
Heck, I’ve run those things with water drops spinning out of the motor as I increase the throttle. (I run them without the shell for a while)
My only concern is that there might be some surface rust if the loco is stored in non open air conditions, so I usually wait a few days before putting the shell back on and keep them where there’s good air circulation.
Surface rust forming on the iron core and the magnets is my main concern. Also, depending on where you are, deposits from the water forming on the conducting surfaces of the commutatot and brushes. Using tap water here where I am would be probably not a good thing. Distilled water, or DI water, would be better, but gettign it under pressure would be difficuly. Alcohol, that may work. Years ago there was a contact cleaner that was non-conductive (of course it uses chemicals now known to be really bad for you, and so it not available) and it was actually demonstrated by dunking a whole locomotive (metal shell and frame, no plastic) in a glass full of the stuff AND APPLYING POWER.
While there are plenty of examples of the gearboxes coming from the factory with far too much grease, I don’t think I’ve ever come across a loco where the motor bearings were over oiled. Dirty commutators can be cleaned with an eraser.
I’m not concerned about sediment, my tap water isn’t that dirty. I do it only once when rehabbing the loco for the first time after purchase. Its not regular maintenance. I find used ones at train shows and rehab them. Its part of the hobby for me. Fix handrails, weather, sell on ebay so someone else can enjoy it.
I assume any LL GP bought at this point is going to be previously owned, (like the OP suggests) but yeah, its not something I’d do to a NOS LL GP.
You’ll be amazed by what people have done to their locos. Thick axle grease packed into the worm gears causes terrible binding, and oily fingerprints all over the things. I’m sure oily dirt has gotten everywhere in many cases.