OOOOOH! Motor oil?!! Surprised it didn't catch on fire!
I bought my engine used from a "reputable" seller. Wow...it was in sad shape.
I guess I was still lucky because it did run. As I started tearing into it, the fact became obvious someone else worked on this engine before but didn't know what they were doing.
All 6 screws that attached the boiler to the frame were hand tight at most. One of the drive rods was attached to the wheel 180 degrees out of sync. And I'm not sure how this happened, but one of the 4-40 5/16" screws (see below) that attaches the motor to the drive wheel frame from underneath was somehow "skewed"? I have NO idea someone could do that! I discovered this when I was working to determine why the "swing" of the front set of drive wheels was more to the right side than to the left. This screw was somehow acting as an offset; similar to a cam adjustment. Weird!
But....it's almost all back together now. I just need to replace all the traction tires and the engine will be ready to go.
I have to mention...these engines are an amazing feat of engineering in and of themselves. I marvel at how Lionel is able to fit all this "stuff" into these steam engine bodies and still keep the engine serviceable. It is quite the puzzle.
