I use Singer oil. The Märklin oil is too thin. The most important is to not use too much oil (short circuiting, dirt,...) The oil should be applied on the little sponges next to the motor (if these are gone, I replace them with a piece of synthetic sponge (schuurspons in Dutch, I don't know the English word for it...), and on the gears (one little drop or so). After oiling, you need to run the vehicle a couple of minutes, so the oil can spread. If the engine gets hot, it may need a little bit more oil.

Hope this helps, and a happy new year,

Jonas

In our "service" section there's one great article about

Best Regards
John

Found it! Thanks a lot, John

happy holidays and warm regards,
Ranjit

I once used Singer oil type, just to try and see, and well, the loco smell as a sewing machine!!! For me it´s no good use this type.

This is nonsense. Oil and grease are electical isolators, so cannot cause shorts.

Oil & grease will suck up carbon residues from the brushes and become conductive eventually, also get their way into the gaps of the commutator, so "over-oiling" is not recommended at all... Regular cleaning and modest oiling at the right spots is the way to go...

My favorite is the Faller oil with added teflon, works excellent for me. Another lubricant I use successfully is ordinary semi-synthetic 10-40 car motor oil of good quality... If there are plastic gears in the gear train, a fully synthetic oil should be used since mineral oil will eat plastic in the long run.

The crucial points are the motor axle ends with the classic Märklin motor. In the "newer" motors as the DCM the sponge containers are gone for some obscure reason, and they will need a "refreshment" now and then with a drop of oil before the next "full service". I also put a tiny drop of oil at the points where the gear axles are visible in the motor chassis. Makes wonders for the mechanical smoothness of the whole gear train. It is really the gear axles that are directly in contact with the metal motor housing together with the rotor end axle points that cause the most friction. The gears themselves are not the main culprits here as long as they are kept free of dirt, cat/dog hairs and such.

A small drop on the gears themselves is however useful too, but not too much since then it will splatter onto the tracks and make it slippery as well as destroy the efficiency of the rubber tires..

A lot of oil and a lot of dust together destroy the
motors.I destroyed a 216 diesel with delta decoder
doing this.I thing that the different climate condi
tions all over the world have their importance.

Well, actually the singer oil is doing a greeeaaat job over here
A little drop of oil here and there and the loco's run smoother than ever before. I don't know why I shouldn't use it? Neither I know why Marklin sells too thin oil...

Jonas

Hi Jonas,

If Singer Oil works for you now, Great! Maybe you just want to look into the long term effects.

best regards,
Ranjit

Ron, after reading your posting I was a bit puzzled at first, but I decided to put it to the test. So I collected all the greases that I could find in the house and put the probes of my ohmmeter into a blob of each. I tested 4 types:
rollerbearing grease (for bicycles)
molybdenium grease
special grease for small instruments
the grease that Roco uses in the gearboxes of their locomotives.

All appeared to be non-conductive. So, if you state: most greases are conductive, I would change that in: most greases are non-conductive.
Don't know why greases in the automotive branch are conductive (do they contain carbon particles?) but I certainlty would not consider conductive greases the general rule.

Ranjit, the alcohol used was "industrial alcohol" that you can buy in shops for cleaning up spots like tape glue residues, ballpen marks, rubber marks and so on, as well as using it in you camping kitchen burner... The red Märklin color will be dissolved, take my word for it...

Many thanks , Ira, learned something new, again - you surely got very rich experience from your airplane & chopper business ...

John

Hi All,

After dismantling, cleaning and lubricating two of my 3000's, I find that one of them runs faster than the other. Although, I do not have an accurate speed tester, I noticed this by running them both simultaneously in an oval track. The faster loco caught up very quickly with the slower one! Why is this so?

Oiling at the axle ends really works wonders to the running performance, Juhan! Thanks a lot for letting me know.

best regards,
Ranjit

John- You would be amazed at the number of electrical and avionics problems are solved with a little bit of cleaning. Now if only my experience would make me rich.

Hi all,

I've read the discussion in this topic with great interest.I know from experience in my work (aviation), that grease and electronics don't go together very well [:(].

I have a question though: Is it safe to use a non silicon based product like WD 40 to free sticky or oil hardened mechanical parts of a locomotive .

Thanks in advance .

Best Regards
Guus

I sometimes use the CRC "555", which I suppose is the equivalent of WD-40 in Sweden... Really stuck gears/wheel axles loosen up and it solves hardened oil efficiently so further cleaning can be done.

I only use it with hopeless cases where a total lock-up in the wheel gears/axles is noticable, otherwise I prefer "softer" methods with "lacknafta" and Q-tips, as mentioned in the referred archived topics some posts ago.

Alcohol is ok to use where it doesn't matter regarding paint degradation like inside the motor compartment, but it doesn't dissolve carbon residues as nicely and efficiently as oil-based solvents like "lacknafta" or lighter fluid do...

But I have no negative comments regarding "555"/WD-40 when it comes to disssolve hard-to-reach area gunk-ups where manual mechanical cleaning is not possible... It is better than not being able to clean at all...

Tamrac, regarding your method of spinning the wheels by thumb, I have one word of advice here - NEVER do it if the wheels are stuck on a steamer or any other lok that has side gear that needs quartering to work 100%... If the wheels & gears move freely, then it's ok to do...

I once had a V60 diesel shunter in for service, and the shop owner wanted to show me that the wheels/gears were dead stuck and he tried to turn the wheels quite forcefully with his thumb just to show me... Needless to say, I spent quite some time to straighten bent rods and quartering wheels just because he "did not know better"... If the mechanism is stuck or hard to move, DON'T force it, clear case of where it is better use WD-40/555 instead...

Juhan, thank you for clarifying. I should have been more carefull in describing my "rule of thumb"[xx(]
I was actually reffering to a Diesel Lok I recently cleaned.
I would never, never force my babies
If it does not move easily then it is stuck and should be properly cleaned.

Ranjit, I have no idea why your 3000:s run differently... It could be many things - as different brush pressure, gears worn differently, assembly tolerances, condition of the commutator copper plates and so on...

Thanks for the info, Juhan. Do even newly manufactured locos run differently because of brush pressure, tolerances, alignment, etc?
Btw, do you know why my 3000 stalls and automatically reverses direction at high speeds?

David, you are absolutely right about the oil on the contact points above the pickup shoe. It is amazing what a difference it makes if they are clean ans well mainted.

Cheers and warm regards,
Ranjit

I do have a new spring in place, Juhan. In fact, everything is new in this loco -- brushes, pickup shoe, etc. How do I adjust the spring's elasticity to make it work the way it should?

Cheers,
Ranjit