Benefit of lubing an engine

[Fordiesel69]

Although I am not a hobby train expert and only a few weeks into this hobby, I concur that oil on the cummutator is BAD NEWS.  You will not have problems for a while, but once the brush gets caked up and the cummutator gets dust and grime, you will be spending time all over again cleaning it.  The good news is, aside from needing new brushes and so elbow grease, you will not really damage the motor.

This comes from experiance with car starters & alternators, and general electric motor repair on many things I have owned over the years.

[SleeperN06]

I’ve been working on emergency backup engine generators for 20 years and one of the things we have to do is clean the commutator so that they were free of any oil to avoid any problems. Oil would eventually glaze over and get into the brushes. The oil also attracts dust in the brushes and they would stick causing arcing until they would fail. Also, the brushes are made up of graphite for lubrication and the oil is supposed to interfere with the graphite. We have to replace the brushes if they become saturated with oil

I used to use WD40 on the older generators with open contactors to lube the contact pivot points to save time and then I would use contact cleaner to clean off the oil off the contacts. I started to have major problems with the contacts sticking because the contact cleaner was hardening the oil and I had to quit this practice.  Someone else mentioned that they stripped down the gears with contact cleaner then added grease and I wondered if the same kind of problems I had would arise.

[servoguy]

 Bob,

I am sure it depends strongly on what type of lube is used on the commutator.  I am still running the 2046 without problems.  I oiled the commutator on this engine about 2 months ago, and it is not having a problem.  If you want, I can run this by two guys I work with that are experts on lubricants.  I am oiling all the commutators on my engines, and so far I don't have a problem.  However, I am sure that not all lubricants will work.  I am using 5W-20 engine oil.

[lionelsoni]

Oiling the commutator or brushes has been advocated recently on the forum.  It is claimed to reduce friction and not to be harmful.  I am skeptical.  The 2037 I was running under the Christmas tree got balky and finally stopped running entirely today.  I opened it up and found sticky stuff on the commutator and brushes.  The brush springs would not move the brushes within their tubes.  I had bought the motor a few years ago, but ran the locomotive very little until this Christmas.  I cleaned commutator and brushes with an eraser and oiled and greased elsewhere; and it runs fine now.

[SleeperN06]

servoguy

I just ran voltage and current measurements before and after lubing a 229 that I have.  This is with the engine pulling a whistle tender and 3 passenger cars with lighting.  The only change was lubing the engine.  The current dropped from 3-3.5 amps to 2-2.5 amps.  The train now runs smoothly at 11 volts.  It is running on a small loop of O-27 track.  I did lube the commutator.

What do you mean you lubed the commutator? Isn't that where the brushes make contact? 

[servoguy]

I just ran voltage and current measurements before and after lubing a 229 that I have.  This is with the engine pulling a whistle tender and 3 passenger cars with lighting.  The only change was lubing the engine.  The current dropped from 3-3.5 amps to 2-2.5 amps.  The train now runs smoothly at 11 volts.  It is running on a small loop of O-27 track.  I did lube the commutator.