@TrainFam posted:Hello everyone trainfam here,
I’ve found myself in a bit of a sticky situation, I’ve got a standard gauge motor from a Lionel 53. Unfortunately I believe the commutator/ brushes are a bit over oiled and most likely need to be dried. My question is what is the best way to dry the pieces off? When I put the locomotive Under power, especially in reverse, the oil that’s on the brushes begins to burn and as a result the brushes smoke. See video below: How can I fix this and prevent it from happening in the future?
In reference to the electrical issues: I think your initial thought is correct about, if there is excess oil inside the brush housing, that it would smoke. Oil is a poor electrical conductor and is heated when attempting to pass a current through it.
@TrainFam posted:I checked and the motor turns freely and the armature and field look to be fine. So is it possible that the gauge of wire on the engine is wrong? It appears to me that someone has rewired the motor and possibly with a different gauge of wire than Lionel intended to be used with these motors? .. Could this be the reason why my engine is smoking?
The larger gauge wires wouldn't cause this issue as they have less resistance than the ones on your other. Other than looking a bit too big, they aren't contributing to this problem.
As far as cleaning out the oil, I'll leave that recommendation to someone more experienced in working on older Locos. A word of caution: I have read that the oil based lacquer used for insulating older motor windings can be softened by mineral spirits, so that's probably something to avoid.
