Lionel MiJack lubrication

I found that for my Mi-Jack that I had to lower the values of the resistors for the side to side motion to give it a little more power.  I also increased the value of the resistors for the wheel drive to slow it down a little, it's hard to position it when it wants to take off like a race car! 

All these resistors are on the control box PCB.

I pickup the containers and the trailer with the unit, no issues here.

Actually, I'd have to take it apart to look.  I know I just shunted another one across the existing one for the traverse motor control, and replaced the other ones for the wheels.  They're pretty low value resistors, in the 10-20 ohm range.  I'm actually thinking of doing a fancier circuit that uses back-EMF from the motors to control the speed, like the ERR Cruise Commander.  This would allow you to get slow speed performance and much more prototypical operation.  Right now the unit is a bit "jerky".  You could get away with a single circuit if you limited yourself to one axis of movement at a time.

Yep, I used Lithium grease on the gears as well.  I greased everything first, then started with the mods.

As far as the wheel drive, I'm optimizing it for a level location, I'm not planning on any hills for the MI-Jack.   I'd like it to go even slower than I have it now, I think that will take a fancier circuit.

I'm not finished with mine by any means, I just wanted it to work well enough for my grandson to be able to use it.  As it comes from the factory, IMO it's not usable!

GunrunnerJohn:

How did you get into the traversing gearbox. I can't figure out how to open it up. The 4 screws on  the bottom only access the grab arms. It looks like there are some tabs, but I am not sure what to do with them, and I don't want to damage anything.

Joe K

I honestly forget the exact technique, but I did open it.  I figured all the gears needed a lube to start, and I was right, they were dry.