Lubricating a 2344

[gottcent]

Thanks, Roger. Very helpful.

John

[TRAINCAT]

There are a few different ways to do the job. Depends on your preference. Mine, is to drip a few drops of oil in that hole occassionally and tip the chassis back and forth to get the oil to the bushings. Make sure too that the gears on the end have grease. I would assume that your 2344 NEEDS service. Some guys like to fill that reservoir hole with grease by squirting it in while the motors are running on a bench top or with the wheels off the tracks. Others just shoot as much grease as you can get into the holes. You need to lift the motors off and service the truck themselves also. Those gears need to be cleaned and re-greased, and axles oiled. Make sure that none of the wheels are rubbing on the truck sides. 2344 engines with high milage can have this problem due to axle bushing wear. If they ARE rubbing, you need to find a pro to replace the bushings, or put a washer in behind the offending wheels. Grease squirted into that lube hole on the motors will eventually become somewhat liquid and run into the bushings. These post war engines can require a lot of labor to get running properly. You also want to make sure that both motors are starting up close to even.

One more thing, if yours have the original pickup rollers you need to oil the ends of each one. Those are about the only rollers Lionel ever recommended to oil. Many guys, myself included, replace the collector arms and rollers with ones fron a 2023/2032.

Roger

[gottcent]

I recently picked up a vintage Lionel 2344 NYC ABA diesel set, and found a copy of the original instructions to go with it. They talk about a lubricant reservoir in the motorized unit that "shouldn't need to be refilled for a long time." However, it's been quite a long time since these diesels were manufactured, and I have no idea whether previous owners took good care of them or not (although they run well and don't appear to be too abused). My questions are: 1)how do I know if it's time to replace lubricant? and 2)do I use actual "lubricant" as the instructions imply, or rather oi?  If the former, I'm not sure how to insert grease lubricant into the tiny hole called the reservoir. Any advice will be appreciated.

John Gottcent