Sigwally, in no particular order;
Don't try to turn the wheels. This not the type of locomotive that you can do that to.
Not sure I would worry about the front or rear driver in terms of adding grease to the grease holes. Just oil the axels with a needle point oiler and you should be fine. The middle driver, along with the drive rods power the front and rear axel. Actually, you can discount the drive rods and you should be able to push the engine on a flat surface. Not sure what Lionel used in 1999, but it was/is not the same formula as the old prewar/postwar stuff that hardened. I'm not saying that you should avoid getting to the gear box, but just don't be surprised if the old grease still looks good.
Dan brings up some good points about the smoke unit. Mine is "ok" with the small puffs, but if you want more you will have to do the mod that Dan wrote about, should be easy.
As for the driver tires, I run on 054 min, so I don't seem to have this issue. Actually normally run on 072 and larger so really is not an issue there.
Richard wrote of turning the commutator by hand and I think this should be sufficient to see if there is any binding. You can see the wheels turn as you turn the commutator
Mine is back together and running just fine. Total time was about 1 hour and that included looking for a e-ring that I dropped. I agree with those who said to open and run now. If everything is fine, wrap it up and wait for Christmas morning.
Charlie
