Just received this engine. My first impression is MEH. It looks great. The whistle sounds good but the chuff is a little cheesy. I think I'll keep her and run it for a while. 
I'm going to assume that she has never been greased since new. I stuck a wooden toothpick down one of the holes to see what came out. It was not grease, per se, but a yellowish and oily substance.
What should I do? I have a can of Valvoline DuraBlend Sem-Synthetic Grease around the house. Will that work?
Ponz
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If you don’t want to take the boiler off and remove the gearbox cover then greasing through the under body holes is the only way to do it. You’ll need a a way to squeeze lube into the hole, especially the hole under the worm gear.
You can try what Rod said to do and see if you can squeeze grease from a small tube into the holes marked grease....I find that a lot of these Mohawks with their age, have the grease dried up in them. This makes it necessary to remove the worm gear cover and the worm shaft and clean out all that dried up gook for smooth performance......if you are uncomfortable doing that, then have it serviced by someone that can..........Pat
romiller49 posted:If you don’t want to take the boiler off and remove the gearbox cover then greasing through the under body holes is the only way to do it. You’ll need a a way to squeeze lube into the hole, especially the hole under the worm gear.
Rod - will that grease I mentioned be OK?
harmonyards posted:You can try what Rod said to do and see if you can squeeze grease from a small tube into the holes marked grease....I find that a lot of these Mohawks with their age, have the grease dried up in them. This makes it necessary to remove the worm gear cover and the worm shaft and clean out all that dried up gook for smooth performance......if you are uncomfortable doing that, then have it serviced by someone that can..........Pat
Will that grease I mentioned be OK?
Ponz posted:harmonyards posted:You can try what Rod said to do and see if you can squeeze grease from a small tube into the holes marked grease....I find that a lot of these Mohawks with their age, have the grease dried up in them. This makes it necessary to remove the worm gear cover and the worm shaft and clean out all that dried up gook for smooth performance......if you are uncomfortable doing that, then have it serviced by someone that can..........Pat
Will that grease I mentioned be OK?
Ain’t gonna hurt it, that’s for sure...your only problem is getting it out of the can and into the tiny hole.....most of us keep a small tube of grease, or what’s called a pin grease gun handy for such jobs.....any grease is better than dried up rocks........Pat
harmonyards posted:Ponz posted:harmonyards posted:You can try what Rod said to do and see if you can squeeze grease from a small tube into the holes marked grease....I find that a lot of these Mohawks with their age, have the grease dried up in them. This makes it necessary to remove the worm gear cover and the worm shaft and clean out all that dried up gook for smooth performance......if you are uncomfortable doing that, then have it serviced by someone that can..........Pat
Will that grease I mentioned be OK?
Ain’t gonna hurt it, that’s for sure...your only problem is getting it out of the can and into the tiny hole.....most of us keep a small tube of grease, or what’s called a pin grease gun handy for such jobs.....any grease is better than dried up rocks........Pat
Well, I found an applicator that worked. She seems to be running a bit smoother, although it just might be my imagination. I'll look again after some run time to see if she'll accept more grease.
Thank you
Ponz
Ponz posted:harmonyards posted:You can try what Rod said to do and see if you can squeeze grease from a small tube into the holes marked grease....I find that a lot of these Mohawks with their age, have the grease dried up in them. This makes it necessary to remove the worm gear cover and the worm shaft and clean out all that dried up gook for smooth performance......if you are uncomfortable doing that, then have it serviced by someone that can..........Pat
Will that grease I mentioned be OK?
Ponz posted:harmonyards posted:You can try what Rod said to do and see if you can squeeze grease from a small tube into the holes marked grease....I find that a lot of these Mohawks with their age, have the grease dried up in them. This makes it necessary to remove the worm gear cover and the worm shaft and clean out all that dried up gook for smooth performance......if you are uncomfortable doing that, then have it serviced by someone that can..........Pat
Will that grease I mentioned be OK?
I’ve used this grease for years. Never solidifies. Yours looks ok to me. You’ll need some type of dispenser.
Don’t pump it to full John, it’ll start oozing out of wheel bearings and the gear box ends and sling everywhere.....and make s.........mess......Pat
harmonyards posted:Don’t pump it to full John, it’ll start oozing out of wheel bearings and the gear box ends and sling everywhere.....and make s.........mess......Pat
Too late! 
Ain’t the end of the world John, wipe up what you can with q tips and rags and keep repeating until it settles down and stops spuin’ grease....you’ll be alright......she’s just pukin out what she don’t want..........Pat
Actually, if you want this engine to run right, you are less than halfway done. You really need to pull the shell and pull the motor. The bearings at both ends of the shaft where it goes through the motor mount are bone dry. You need to pull the bearings out, clean the gunk out of them and their housings, and repack with a high quality grease. You do this, and the engine will run forever. If you don't, you will find that after a half hour or so of steady running the voltage will need to be increased to keep the engine moving. Eventually it will barely crawl. Take it off and cool it down, and it will run again, for a while. Do the grease job, and it will stay running.
BTW, the early Reading T-1 has the same issue. It has the same drive mechanism.
Chris
LVHR
lehighline posted:Actually, if you want this engine to run right, you are less than halfway done. You really need to pull the shell and pull the motor. The bearings at both ends of the shaft where it goes through the motor mount are bone dry. You need to pull the bearings out, clean the gunk out of them and their housings, and repack with a high quality grease. You do this, and the engine will run forever. If you don't, you will find that after a half hour or so of steady running the voltage will need to be increased to keep the engine moving. Eventually it will barely crawl. Take it off and cool it down, and it will run again, for a while. Do the grease job, and it will stay running.
BTW, the early Reading T-1 has the same issue. It has the same drive mechanism.
Chris
LVHR
I love the look of that T1. I had to send one back because it was faulty. I'm trying to find a schematic/diagram of this engine to no avail.
Thanks - Ponz
Where can I find a diagram? I'd like to open her up and look inside. I'm a bit leery without some instructions.
Ponz
Blow these up and use these.........Pat
Wow, what book is that, Pat?
Mark in Oregon
Strummer posted:Wow, what book is that, Pat?
Mark in Oregon
It’s a book with words and pictures Mark.....ha ha ha......I couldn’t resist.......here ya go buddy....
Or, ya know, one could just pull-up the documents on Lionel's website:
Should be fairly easy/straight forward to take the shell off and grease everything up. Remove the armature from the motor and grease the bearings. Pop the cover off the worm wheel and grease the worm and worm gear. Don't forget to oil the drive wheel bearings and the side rods.
Everyone will give their opinion on grease and oil and what common stuff you can use from the auto parts/home improvement store. I stick with Labelle 106 grease and Labelle 107 oil. They are designed for models and work very well. It's more expensive per ounce than the adapted stuff but it's designed specifically for model trains.
PaperTRW posted:Or, ya know, one could just pull-up the documents on Lionel's website:
Whenever I typed in 6-18009 in their support page, the engines does not come up
Thanks guys - Right now, I'm just trying to figure out how to remove the shell! 
Ponz
A free Kansas City Bar-B-Q lunch, in Kansas City, for anyone who would point out exactly which screws remove the shell so I can get at the motor and gears.
Only somewhat inept,
Ponz
Should be three screws... two in the ashpan, and one (slotted) holding the forward section of the front truck linkage.
TRW
PaperTRW posted:Should be three screws... two in the ashpan, and one (slotted) holding the forward section of the front truck linkage.
TRW
Almost correct but not quite, there are two screws through the ash pan. Remove those. Use a small magnet to extract these. The front boiler mount screw (Phillips Head) hides under the front truck. If you look at the front truck swing arm, you’ll see a notch in the arm that will correspond with the hole the screw is in. Remove this screw, use the magnet to extract it. Before you do anything, open the boiler front door and scoot the headlight harness back and out of the way so you don’t yank it out upon disassembly. Take note on how the front steps are arranged before you dismantle. The steps are separate and will just fall out when you begin to separate the shell from the chassis....it’s pretty self explanatory.....no rocket surgery or brain science....😉........Pat
The important point is to make sure you know what it looks like BEFORE taking it apart. And make sure to put the same screws back into the same holes.
Only disassemble as little as possible to get the job done. Lay the parts out in the order/position removed. For instance, sometimes the front steps are different from one side to the other. Sometimes one screw is longer than another.
Many folks disassemble into a million parts and throw all those parts into the same bin and then cannot figure out how it reassembles - what part goes where.
OK guys. As always, thank you for your time and patience. As I've mentioned before you all are light years ahead of me with this hobby. If I wasn't running conventionally I'd be a really big pain in the butt.
Ponz
harmonyards posted:PaperTRW posted:Should be three screws... two in the ashpan, and one (slotted) holding the forward section of the front truck linkage.
TRW
Almost correct but not quite, there are two screws through the ash pan. Remove those. Use a small magnet to extract these. The front boiler mount screw (Phillips Head) hides under the front truck. If you look at the front truck swing arm, you’ll see a notch in the arm that will correspond with the hole the screw is in. Remove this screw, use the magnet to extract it. Before you do anything, open the boiler front door and scoot the headlight harness back and out of the way so you don’t yank it out upon disassembly. Take note on how the front steps are arranged before you dismantle. The steps are separate and will just fall out when you begin to separate the shell from the chassis....it’s pretty self explanatory.....no rocket surgery or brain science....😉........Pat
And away I go......
RoyBoy posted:The important point is to make sure you know what it looks like BEFORE taking it apart. And make sure to put the same screws back into the same holes.
Only disassemble as little as possible to get the job done. Lay the parts out in the order/position removed. For instance, sometimes the front steps are different from one side to the other. Sometimes one screw is longer than another.
Many folks disassemble into a million parts and throw all those parts into the same bin and then cannot figure out how it reassembles - what part goes where.
Roger that!
First snag.
Had to loosen the ash pan in order to fully release the chassis. There is a short length of wire, soldered to the motor on each side, going through the cab openings. There's not enough slack to fully remove the shell.. Don't tell me there's a cut required, please.
Ponz
I sent you a message on how to unplug that John..........Pat
harmonyards posted:I sent you a message on how to unplug that John..........Pat
HARMONYARDS Please post message you sent sent Ponz - so the rest of us can use the info -Thanks
OK - done but something's askew. It turns out removing the shell wasn't necessary. My initial grease job worked just fine.
SURFLINER posted:harmonyards posted:I sent you a message on how to unplug that John..........Pat
HARMONYARDS Please post message you sent sent Ponz - so the rest of us can use the info -Thanks
The black wire looped through the cab is the jack plug for the reverse unit. On the fireman’s side, it simply unplugs out of that hole, then can be threaded out of the other hole for shell removal....hope that helps buddy.........Pat
harmonyards posted:SURFLINER posted:harmonyards posted:I sent you a message on how to unplug that John..........Pat
HARMONYARDS Please post message you sent sent Ponz - so the rest of us can use the info -Thanks
The black wire looped through the cab is the jack plug for the reverse unit. On the fireman’s side, it simply unplugs out of that hole, then can be threaded out of the other hole for shell removal....hope that helps buddy.........Pat
HARMONYARDS -Thank you so much for posting the info you sent to PONZ to for all to see & use.
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