How Not To Do A Lube Job

WOW!

Looks like peanut butter!

Well.... it's better than seeing gears falling off from lack of lube! 

I try to tell club members a very little goes a long way.

think they listen....

Dan,

That will be a nice gg1, looks like he over lubed it with creamy peanut butter. Hope it cleaned up ok. 

Bring it to our next get together. 

Dave

I can see greasing the gears but why the opposite side?

This person obviously believed the bigger the gob the better the job!  

david1 posted:

Dan,

That will be a nice gg1, looks like he over lubed it with creamy peanut butter. Hope it cleaned up ok. 

Bring it to our next get together. 

Dave

 

 

Thanks Dave.  Will do. 

philo426 posted:

Looks like peanut butter!

But it didn't taste like it.....LOL

Lou1985 posted:

I can see greasing the gears but why the opposite side?

Good question.  I recall as kids, doing stuff like this.  One of my buddies oiled his American Flyer loco with Wesson cooking oil.  For some reason, it wouldn't run after that.  I wonder why.....

Interesting! that looks like the "grease" I had to pick out of my Weaver models VO1000 to get it to run!

Talk about overkill!

-Greg

 Peter Pan was Jiffy quick , Skippy the grape jelly.

Its just "cosmoline" to keep the gears from rusting during shipping! 

Dan:

     I bought an old Lionel 1862 General like that, only it was oil that was overused. The thing was dripping with oil. I imagined that each time the engine slowed down, the previous owner must have thought- Just add more oil!

    In your case the previous owner must have thought each time the GG-1 slowed down- Just add more grease!

  John

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

 

Interesting! that looks like the "grease" I had to pick out of my Weaver models VO1000 to get it to run!

 

Same here...   But in my case it was a factory problem re the VO's that Gary (Weaver tech) told me about.  I  purchased a VO-1000 (ATSF) still sealed just a couple months before Gary left Weaver and they closed up shop.  Considering when that run of VO's was made, this one had been sleeping for a l-o-n-g time.  When I tried a test run it wouldn't move, but you could hear the motor hum in its struggle to turn.

I called Gary, explained what I had, and he immediately pointed to the old gear lube....needed to be cleaned out/replaced.  Within the hour she was running as smoothly as silk.  

It was a similar situation to the China lube that Lionel put into a late run of gantry cranes.  Talk about a gummy, gloppy mess in that gearbox!!

But that GG1!........

Good golly, miss moly!  

I think you have enough extra there to grease your entire fleet for eternity.

WOW

Lubrication errors are at the root of many of the problems I've seen repairing toy trains.
Some folks use too much, and some folks put lubricants where they don't belong.

Ever see an E-unit with all it's parts coated with grease?

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Interesting! that looks like the "grease" I had to pick out of my Weaver models VO1000 to get it to run!

 

I've run across the same grease in the past.  Fairly sure it's a Lionel product. It was still very soft when I cleaned it up.  

One other related point.  I have two "G" scale Bachmann Davenports.  George Schreyer, on his website, recommends loading the worm gear/axle gear box, with extra lubricant.  These locos have a tendency to jerk when running downhill.  I think the jerking has something to do with too tight a fit between the worm and axle gears.  

'Anything worth doing is worth over doing'!!  Or so a friend of mine always tells me (usually when drinking beer and I am ready to stop). 

Oye Vey, Dan please tell me you got this at a good price to cover your elbow grease to fix this unit? After all is said and done does it run well?

franktrain posted:

Its just "cosmoline" to keep the gears from rusting during shipping! 

Dan, I think Frank is right, I recently bought a .45 Longslide unfired from 1980 and it had gook inside the slide that looked just like this.  Not too hard to clean off.

Chris Sheldon

I agree with Don, the grease looks like the stuff Lionel was using when that GG-1 was made. It was also included in their maintenance kits.

I have run across a few New, old stock motorized units in which that grease had hardened and took a bit of work to remove.

Whether the grease stays soft or hardens is probably largely related to storage conditions.
The trains with hardened grease were fine in every other respect, as were the boxes.

The former owner of this "Greasy G" is also not the guy who you want to tell to "tighten that nut just a bit".

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Mitch