Lionel #8100 MPC J

I can help with a suggestion for weights.  I am in the automotive industry and we use tape weights to balance tires.  They come in segments of 1/4 ounce and have an adhesive on the back.  Any decent auto parts store should have a small package.  I have used these in the past when I raced rc cars and they were effective.  

Before doing anything else, has the loco and cars been serviced and lubricated recently? The motor has an oil hole in it, and you need to remove the motor to add grease to the drive gear. Lightly oil the axle bearings on the loco and cars. Once properly lubricated, you should notice an improvement in performance.

Larry

The engine was serviced by me. The motor was cleaned, old grease has been replaced by Red n Tacky, Oil added to the motor oil hole. All bearing and axles have had 1 drop of oil added. The motor is as smooth as anything. But when pulling all 8 of its Aluminum passenger cars, the engine wheels spin and the train moves, but I know the traction can be better to get a better speed.

Try these "tape-a-weights"(we used to call them) available at Harbor Freight:

I have used these in light diesels too for traction improvement.

How about the cars? Have you lubricated them?

This is an often overlooked area. Although the wheels and axles are of the modern "fast angle" and "needlepoint bearing" style, this introduces another whole impediment - the wheels are locked to the axles, and the axles pass through the truck assemblies which were carried over from the postwar 2500 series cars, turning constantly in the trucks. The postwar cars wheels were free-rolling on the axles, not locked.

Lube the axles in the trucks with a good synthetic motor oil and your 8100 will pull the consist with ease.

Yeah, all 32 axles have been oiled as well. I believe the engine just needs a bit of weight added and some traction to run better. I have never seen the J pull all 8 cars. Only 6 or 7. I think many people had the set and never got the last add on which was the full dome car :-)

Had the same issue with my MPC GS4 pulling all 8 of the Daylight cars as well, but I use the F3's for those.

Perfectly clean track will help too.

#19108 Full Dome Car was made for this set in 1991 as an uncatalogued Year End Deal. No Dome car was made for the set introduced in 1995-96

What track are you using? MT will not work on every brand of track. That engine should easily pull that train.(if as you say all has been lubed)

Tubular Lionel O gauge with 054 and 072 curves and 072 switches. I checked a few of the passenger cars, and found some old gunk in the axles. Cleaned them, oiled them up with Labelle 108 medium oil, now the train runs like a champ with all 8 cars! I bought all the passenger cars mint, but I guess sitting in the boxes for so long, there was dust build up. Impressive MPC set with smoke coming from the stack and cylinders running at a decent speed..I love my MPC collector line items...

This is not an uncommon problem for sets of this era....

I have the 20th Century Ltd NYC set.......ABA and 5 aluminum passenger are pulled fine....Add the add-on Sleeper and add-on Diner......you have a struggling twin-motored F3.

Peter

Peter, I have heard of some sending the engines to Timko to have the power truck wheels grooved with rubber tires...I have all the F3 MPC aluminum passenger sets, and I have noticed when you run them with all 7 or 8 cars, depending on the set, if not on a flat grade, the engines will struggle...

That's part of it, the other part is that a full train of these under load will start drawing 6-7 amps or more with all the bulbs, and especially at higher transformer/throttle settings.

Thats true...Thats why I am starting to replace all of the bulbs in ALL my cars with the warm white 18V LED Bulbs from town and country hobbies...That should help with all the sets. The diesels will pull a little better but I think I will eventually put a thin layer of RTV Silicone or Frog Snot on the flanged gear wheels to improve traction. I think Jim Barrett did an video on adding traction tires to the F3's in one of my OGR the Video series. I will have to go dig it out..