I have a brand new Lionel 1997 Service Station set with a Conrail 8495 SD-20 locomotive, single Pullmor motor. Since it's old enough to drink I thought I should give it some oil before running it. I'm new to all of this and have never worked on any O-gauge stuff before (had HO as a kid) so please excuse what I'm sure is a very simple question.
The instructions (https://www.lionelsupport.com/...le=5820718566250.pdf) say that the motor is oiled by removing the set screw in the brush plate, putting in two drops of oil, then reinstalling the set screw tightly and then backing it off 1/2 turn. I tried to do this but realized that I got the set screw further in than it had been originally and it never felt tight. The brush plate is plastic and the set screw's threads are snug (which they have to be since it's not supposed to tighten against anything to create thread friction that way) -- I'm guessing that the friction of the screw threads is greater than the resistance to bending the brush plate (or whatever's holding the bottom of the armature) so it's hard to feel when the set screw contacts the end of the armature. Hope I didn't damage anything.
Anyway, my plan B was to use a pencil eraser to turn the armature back and forth as I slowly tightened the set screw, and and then I knew when the screw made contact with the armature because the armature became a lot harder to turn. Then I backed off half a turn from there. Did I do it right or is there a better method for adjusting the set screw?
The engine seems to run fine as far as I can tell but again I have no experience. Based on the reputation of Pullmor motors it's not as noisy as I expected, and runs smoothly enough at medium-slow speed. There is more ozone smell then I expected, but given that the set box mentions the "classic smell of ozone" I'm guessing this is how it's supposed to be.
Bonus question: the instructions don't say anything about the worm gear, and it's not visible. Does it ever need lube?
