Large Scale Central

Thickened Bachmann lubrication

I have a Bachmann 2 truck Shay that has run very well in the past. It has run a few seasons with occasional re-lubrication. But over the summer the Bachmann lubrication products I have used (according to their video instructions) has really thickened up to the extent the loco is now hesitant to run.

I am considering trying to wash out all the old lubricant and apply new (i.e. a fresh start) but wonder about the best way to go about this. I am considering spraying the drive train with isopropyl alcohol and using Q-tips and small brushes to remove what is there. I have 3 questions.

  1. Will isopropyl alcohol harm the plastic parts of this loco, or the finish?

  2. Will isopropyl alcohol shift the lubricant?

  3. Is there a much better approach / products I should be considering that others have used successfully?

I have 3 questions.

  1. Will isopropyl alcohol harm the plastic parts of this loco, or the finish?

  2. Will isopropyl alcohol shift the lubricant?

  3. Is there a much better approach / products I should be considering that others have used successfully?

The best way to answer your questions is through careful experimentation. Using a small brush, rub some on the side of the gear and the underside of the engine.

  • I don’t believe isopropyl alcohol will do any harm. I used some 91% stuff a few days ago to clean a resin cast part.

  • It will probably shift the lubricant - try it on a small area.

  • There are other products that will dissolve grease and probably do a better job. Mineral Spirits (paint thinner) for one. There’s a Simple Green Degreaser (it’s blue I think,) that we use on our live steam engines - just spray them and then wash in warm water.

If it were me I would be afraid of using much else but the prescribed oils on the locomotive. To that end, I might try to apply new lubricant to the areas which are thick hoping that the fresh oils would act as a bit of a solvent to soften the thickened oil. Then once the new oil sits for a bit and has a chance to soften the old oil you could use the cleaning tools you mention to try and remove it all in order to start over.

Let us know what you end up doing and how it works.

You do know that Dawn dish detergent is the best grease cutter on the market. Right.(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

Edited to add that I would not have the loco connected to any electrical current till I was done bathing it it the Dawn detergent and made sure it was all dry.

Pete Thornton said:

I have 3 questions.

  1. Will isopropyl alcohol harm the plastic parts of this loco, or the finish?

  2. Will isopropyl alcohol shift the lubricant?

  3. Is there a much better approach / products I should be considering that others have used successfully?

The best way to answer your questions is through careful experimentation. Using a small brush, rub some on the side of the gear and the underside of the engine.

  • I don’t believe isopropyl alcohol will do any harm. I used some 91% stuff a few days ago to clean a resin cast part.

Yes, I will certainly proceed with an abundance of caution at first. Thanks for your response, Pete

Randy Lehrian Jr. said:

If it were me I would be afraid of using much else but the prescribed oils on the locomotive. To that end, I might try to apply new lubricant to the areas which are thick hoping that the fresh oils would act as a bit of a solvent to soften the thickened oil. Then once the new oil sits for a bit and has a chance to soften the old oil you could use the cleaning tools you mention to try and remove it all in order to start over.

I am afraid that this is how I got into this mess. Every season I just relubricated over whatever was left (in spite of Bachmann’s advice to avoid over-lubrication). Whether I could have cleaned it all off at that stage is unknown but I am hesitant to add more at this stage. But I appreciate the thoughts, Randy

David Marconi,FOGCH said:

You do know that Dawn dish detergent is the best grease cutter on the market. Right.(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

I don’t know if that was intended as a serious suggestion or not but I will assume it was. Now that I think of it, I am often reaching for the dish washing detergent when ever I have a greasy deposit to remove in other applications. Dawn is advertised as being used to save oily birds etc. so it seems like a real good choice to try. I have just added it to our grocery list. Thanks, David

And as a rare poster here, I clearly need instruction from someone on how to have my reply go into the “yellow” part of the post after quoting the other person, rather than remaining in the “white” part implying the other person said it.

And as a rare poster here, I clearly need instruction from someone on how to have my reply go into the “yellow” part of the post after quoting the other person, rather than remaining in the “white” part implying the other person said it.

Two answers.

  1. When you click the “Quote This” top right, you will find an indented area in the “Reply” box with the quoted text - but if you move the cursor down, you will find there is a line below the quoted text that is not indented. That’s the yellow area.

  2. The indent happens when you click the double quotes on the top menu of the text box. If you only want to quote part of a post, then highlight the bit you want, right-click and copy, and paste it into the Quick Reply box below the posts. (ctrl-C = copy and ctrl-V = paste if you prefer keyboard codes.)
    Then, when you have the cursor in the text in your Quick Reply, click the double quotes icon on the right side of the reply box list on the top and your text will indent. Move the cursor down to a blank line (hit return to create one if necessary,) and then click the double quote icon again to cancel the indent. That puts you in the yellow area for your partial quote.

I just saved this screen shot so I will append it momentarily. P.S. you can use the indent/quote option as many times as you like within a reply.

Pete Thornton said:

And as a rare poster here, I clearly need instruction from someone on how to have my reply go into the “yellow” part of the post after quoting the other person, rather than remaining in the “white” part implying the other person said it.

Two answers.

  1. When you click the “Quote This” top right, you will find an indented area in the “Reply” box with the quoted text - but if you move the cursor down, you will find there is a line below the quoted text that is not indented. That’s the yellow area.

Testing Method 2

  1. The indent happens when you click the double quotes on the top menu of the text box. If you only want to quote part of a post, then highlight the bit you want, right-click and copy, and paste it into the Quick Reply box below the posts. (ctrl-C = copy and ctrl-V = paste if you prefer keyboard codes.)
    Then, when you have the cursor in the text in your Quick Reply, click the double quotes icon on the right side of the reply box list on the top and your text will indent. Move the cursor down to a blank line (hit return to create one if necessary,) and then click the double quote icon again to cancel the indent. That puts you in the yellow area for your partial quote.

Testing Method 1

Thanks for taking the time to hold my hand. Pete I hope this reply ends up looking like what I expect.

VictoriaDave said:

David Marconi,FOGCH said:

You do know that Dawn dish detergent is the best grease cutter on the market. Right.(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

I don’t know if that was intended as a serious suggestion or not but I will assume it was. Now that I think of it, I am often reaching for the dish washing detergent when ever I have a greasy deposit to remove in other applications. Dawn is advertised as being used to save oily birds etc. so it seems like a real good choice to try. I have just added it to our grocery list. Thanks, David

That was a dead serious answer Victoria Dave. Just sure you allow to dry or completely blow dry to remove moisture before you power up. I have used it for years with no ill effects. (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

I use original Dawn (blue liquid) for removing grease from plastics. Never established a formulae of Dawn to water ratio. Worked well with good rinse and air dry.

Mike

Sorry Dave,

I didn’t mean to suggest something that might put you right back to the beginning of your problem. The key difference would be cleaning thing once they got loosened. I could see where repeated oiling without cleaning might cause that issue.

I think the suggestion of Dawn is excellent. This I would trust on any plastic and i does cut grease very well. Mr Marconi is a veteran modeler and I wouldn’t hesitate to take his advice.

Again let us know how things turn out.

MIKE PATERSON said:

I use original Dawn (blue liquid) for removing grease from plastics. Never established a formulae of Dawn to water ratio. Worked well with good rinse and air dry.

Mike

Thanks Mike, I picked up some Dawn today and will try a very weak mix first and work up the amount of Dawn as needed.

Dave

Randy Lehrian Jr. said:

I think the suggestion of Dawn is excellent. This I would trust on any plastic and i does cut grease very well. Mr Marconi is a veteran modeler and I wouldn’t hesitate to take his advice.

Again let us know how things turn out.

Thanks Randy, Yes I will be sure to send an update once I have tackled this. I first have to clear away a few quick repair jobs on some structures that suffered a bit over the summer and then I can clear the decks to tackle this.

Dave

Randy Lehrian Jr. said:

Sorry Dave,

I didn’t mean to suggest something that might put you right back to the beginning of your problem. The key difference would be cleaning thing once they got loosened. I could see where repeated oiling without cleaning might cause that issue.

I think the suggestion of Dawn is excellent. This I would trust on any plastic and i does cut grease very well. Mr Marconi is a veteran modeler and I wouldn’t hesitate to take his advice.

Again let us know how things turn out.

And here I thought we were buds on a first name basis (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

I usually use gun cleaning swabs (because I have a bunch), Q tips and pipe cleaners (if necessary to get into tight areas) to remove 99% of the old grease. If it is just thick and not hardened (still wipes off easily), I’m not sure if I would worry about using alcohol or dawn, only to apply new grease on the part. If you needed to glue or paint that part, absolutely use it. Ensure you get all the cotton fibers out of the gears. I usually only do one wipe per Qtip to keep the shedding to a minimum. This uses a lot of Qtips but they are cheap.

Derailed said:

I usually use gun cleaning swabs (because I have a bunch), Q tips and pipe cleaners (if necessary to get into tight areas) to remove 99% of the old grease. If it is just thick and not hardened (still wipes off easily), I’m not sure if I would worry about using alcohol or dawn, only to apply new grease on the part. If you needed to glue or paint that part, absolutely use it. Ensure you get all the cotton fibers out of the gears. I usually only do one wipe per Qtip to keep the shedding to a minimum. This uses a lot of Qtips but they are cheap.

Thanks for this, Derailed. The pipe cleaner idea is one I hadn’t thought of and probably far better than Q-tips in this case. In the case of the Shay all the drive line along the side of the loco will be very hard to really get into every nook and cranny. I was hoping to spray that area (really flood it) with the hopes of washing away a lot of the gunk in the tight corners but helping it along with pipe cleaners will probably be needed.

Dave

    

Derailed said:

I usually use gun cleaning swabs (because I have a bunch), Q tips and pipe cleaners (if necessary to get into tight areas) to remove 99% of the old grease. If it is just thick and not hardened (still wipes off easily), I’m not sure if I would worry about using alcohol or dawn, only to apply new grease on the part. If you needed to glue or paint that part, absolutely use it. Ensure you get all the cotton fibers out of the gears. I usually only do one wipe per Qtip to keep the shedding to a minimum. This uses a lot of Qtips but they are cheap.

I agree with your way of cleaning grease, etc. from gears in the gear box. I just totally redid two LGB Moguls and one LGB White Pass diesel that had been in the closet for some 20-25 years and not run during that time. Upon removal of the gear covers I did find the grease to be on the hard side, removed it with Q tips and pipe cleaners and I find this does a very good job, just takes a little time, but all I have is time. Replace the grease with the correct lube for these gears and did lubricate the axles where they seat on the motor block housing, don’t forget this is a wear point for these engines so use the correct lubricate here, not the grease that is used on the gears. I guess if you feel and complete wash of the gears is what is needed then do what you feel you need to do, but my personal feeling it a lot of mess to deal with when not needed. Since most of these gears boxes are sealed, dirt getting in them should not be a problem, thus the need for that type of cleaning I would think would not be needed.

trainman

the Bachmann lubrication products I have used (according to their video instructions) has really thickened up

I forgot to mention that the Bachmann “EZ-Lube gear grease” has a very limited shelf life - and presumably therefore a very limited usage life, which you just discovered. My original pot hardened up to a useless mass after 10+ years, and the replacement (1 or 2 years old) is already separating into sort-of oil and sort-of grease, so I have to stir it before use.

I would suggest using something else. LaBelle seems to make lubricants that work. I use synthetic oil I bought on Amazon, and vaseline grease from my wife’s bathroom pot.