Hi Joe, I've found that my Loks need oiling way before 40 hours. My layout has lots of hills so
I think that's the cause. Cheers,Peter

Hi!
Please note that the grease interval is 20 hours for some Märklin locos.
I’m afraid there won’t be noise from the worm drive until it’s too late (FUBAR).

With modern locos from Märklin and Roco the rods actually drive the wheels. Therefore IMHO some lubrication is required there.

Oil on the collector can ruin the motor, oil on the traction tyres can ruin the tractive effort. Too much oil can do harm, too little oil increases wear.

Joe and other members,

To eliminate oiling of the shaft there is one solution: ballbearings on both sides.

John

Hi All,

Actually I use grease instead of oil on the DCM and SFCM armature shafts. Not only does the lubrication last much longer but grease also reduces the risk of contaminating the collector. For lubrication of gears etc. I do use oil.

Regards, Robert

Robert,

Interesting, what kind of grease (or weight) do you use?

-Brandon

Robert,

Thanks so much for such detailed information! Unfortunately the specifications do not mean much, but I looked up the grease. I think this is similar (or the same) as white lithium grease, which is often used for metal on plastic types of contact. Is this grease a sort of white colour?

Thanks

-Brandon

Hi all,

http://standards.sae.org...es/lubricants/standards/

Dr D

Hi all,
Brandon,
When opening up Fl/Roco/Märklin/Trix loks(and many US models) grease seems to be the norm.
I can recomend Labelle:

http://www.con-cor.com/Labelle.html

And hob-E-Lube(Woodland Scenics):

http://woodlandscenics.woodland...egory/StandardHob-E-Lube

Might even have them at the local hobby shop!

Dr D

i don't know if anyone else has tried it but i got myself a spraycan of canola oil and use this to oilthe moving parts

I would strongly advice against using canola-, sunflower-, palm- or indeed any other vegetable oil for lubrication purposes. I don´t know a whole lot about lubricants but this much I do know, veg. oils don´t provide any lubrication properties whatsoever! If you have an old, pre-common rail diesel car, by all means, put it in your tank but never in the sump!

Robert

That Labelle piece was very interesting. I quess I'm "old school" because decades ago I was strictly admonished to never put oil on the brushes of any electric motor because it would short it out. For decades, I've been using Labelle 107 light oil for all my HO trains, both DC and AC, never knowing that it conducts electricity, and is therefore safe to use directly on the motor's brushes. Given my early training, I've been very careful to avoid getting or putting any oil on the brushes of any of my Marklin motors. Has anyone used Labelle 107 directly on the brushes of their Marklin loks? What was the outcome? Thanks,
-Chas

This is what i use to oil locomotivs.

Hi Sony,all,

>I had the same problem. My newest loco Railpool 29450, just bought week ago from lackylok-frickenhausen, also making terrible sound. When I open the loco body, there is grease (I think, don't know what grease looks like :))) on the loco body (perhaps due to a long way shipping and a lot of shaking, the grease was jumping around :p). So I put back that grease on the propeller shaft. But the sound were still exist. <

IMO: manufactures at times add too much grease!I have seen this in a lot of loks,...
However,adding grease/oil will not(again my opinion) solve noise problems.This due to the gears(or motor)Have you tried 'breaking-in' the lok?I use these for that:

http://www.busch-model.com/onli...id=1800&sprach_id=en

Dr D

A couple of following questions:

Regarding models requiring grease:

-Newer models with screw drive sometimes call for 66626 grease, is this grease as bad as M*'s oil? Or usable?
-It's a little unclear from the manual how much grease would go on the screw drive, I am guessing a dab, any pointers?

Regarding old LFCM models:

-These old motors have an oil sponge in them. These sponges get pretty nasty after a while, gummy, hard, etc. Do you replace the sponges? Or something else? I know if I greased the shafts on the rotor I could avoid the sponge, but curious what the best course of action would be if I were to use oil.

-Brandon

My 2 cents - Faller 170488 Spezialschmiermittel with Teflon®...

Works for both metal gears & plastic worms in any scale....

Kevin, Juhan,

Thanks. I should have understood that oil and grease were interchangeable in this context. I'll just assume anything M* and in liquid form is probably suspicious.
Good idea on the oil sponges. I have some pretty nasty ones, but this is pretty good common sense.

I'm grateful for the help on easy questions.

-Brandon

I use a syringe filled with automotive multigrade oil, 20W50 to apply small quantities of oil where ever it is needed, this includes things like the garden wheel barrow, domestic door hindges etc., to Marklin rolling stock and locomotive gears and motors. If it can last up to 15000Km or more in my car's sump then I have no problem using it in my Marklin equipment at any time, which in my opinion is only a very light duty application, have not worn out anything yet in more than 25 years, I only lubricate when the mechanism needs it (becomes noisy) and then only a tiny drop.
Hannes

Hi all,

This has been an interesting topic. It is obvious we are all using various brands & types of lubrication. This is a critical part of maintaining our locomotives & rolling stock.
We must not also over look periodic cleaning of the whole drive system, as eventually it does get dirty, no mater what your lubrication procedures are.
Over lubrication can be as damaging as no lubrication. I have repaired a few locos from fellow club members, and the majority of poor running has been due to over lubrication. One loco I serviced was absolutely saturated with oil, it was every where, all over the frame and in the commutator which was sparking and shorting out.
Over lubrication as we know can attract unwanted material in the gears, and we know what happens next.
Periodic inspection is essential with any mechanical device. Often you will notice a change in noise that your loco makes or starts to jerk/hesitate a lot more than it should. Some times its mechanical, but on occasions I have found frayed or broken wiring to be the cause of erratic running.
I think the main factor in Lubrication is use a known quality brand, (talk to fellow modellers/forums) as many of us already quite well versed in this area, and if you are not sure don't be afraid to ask, hence this topic.
We will all ways have our preferences as we tend to stick with what we find works best for our selves, but sometimes there are better alternatives that we might not have thought of. This is why this forum is so great, you get a diverse range of experiences.
My oldest loco is a 3084 ver1 BR 50. I have had this since about 1977, and is still in very good running order.

Look after your investment & they will just keep on running. I think that's why Marklin is so good. Quality,reliability, and relatively easy to maintain.

Cheers,
Brian.