# best gear oils and grease for g scale locos



## james bond (Oct 19, 2008)

what are the best oils and grease for g scale steam locos . the reason I ask is that I'm a big on preventive maintenance on my trains and I like to keep the maintenance down thanks in advance for the info


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

oops! Put in lubes for sparkies!

deleted...


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Been discussed (and cussed) many times here on MLS in the Live Steam forum... latest discussion is here:

http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/forumid/11/postid/53928/view/topic/Default.aspx


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## Bill Swindell (Jan 2, 2008)

For grease, I use Labelle #106. This is a teflon loaded, plastic compatible grease.

I use light weight oil for motor armature bearings and a heavier oil for axle bearings. In all cases, I use plastic compatible lubricants.


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## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

When attending a maintenance clinic by LGB, they had the Brylcream thought in that a little dab will do ya with the oil on the engine axles. They recommended only a 1/2 drop. 
On greasing the gears, use it sparingly, not globs!!!!. Do not fill the gear box.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

James Bond: 

Did I misunderstand? 

Is the question about electrically motivated G scale locomotives that represent a steam locomotive 

or 

Is the question about a G scale live steam locomotive? 

Regards, Greg


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## Trains West (Oct 4, 2008)

he appears to be a electric guy by his other posts so go ahead and post what you started to .......


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Ahh... reading it over, I think you are right, just saw "steam" and figured it might be live steam... 

I like the Aero-car and the Hob-e-lube stuff. I have a page on lubrication that might be helpful to a beginner. 

http://www.elmassian.com/trains-mainmenu-27/lubrication-mainmenu-34 *[url]http://www.elmassian.com/trains-mainmenu-27/lubrication-mainmenu-34*[/url]

Regards, Greg

(comments from all are welcome, as always)


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## Trains West (Oct 4, 2008)

on the gears on the inside of a sealed gearbox I have been using moble 1 grease with a lot of luck .....

it has a high temp that it becomes liquid at and stays well on the gears and is fully plastic compatable ......





http://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/MotorOil/Other_Products/Mobil_1_Synthetic_Grease.aspx


and though I agree that oils tend to attract dirt I have not had a lot of luck keeping things lubed with dry lubes .....

and you have to use something that conducts on pickups ..... like the bachmann contact lube or the black stuff that lgb and aristo both have made 


anything white lithium based I find goes to a liquid state on a good hot day and runs away from what it is there to lube ......


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

LGB conductive grease is not conductive at all.... they call it conductive because keeping moisture and dirt out of rail joiners kept them conductive...any lithium grease will do as well. I think the LGB stuff might have graphite in it. 

The Aristocraft stuff is called Electralube, and is slightly conductive. It will also destroy certain plastics, see the aristo forum for this... i.e. don't use it where it can touch plastic. 

Look at that aero-car NG gel lube on my site, it's great stuff, clings like a gel, lubes like an oil under pressure. 

Regards, Greg


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## paintjockey (Jan 3, 2008)

The lube set that B-mann puts out is good stuff, but horribly overpriced. I normally use Hobby Lube and have had zero problems with it.


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## Trains West (Oct 4, 2008)

me saying conductive is a poor use of words .......

you do not want a oil that will conduct or a film of oil in the wrong place could cause a short to ground 

you do want a oil that does not stop conduction .........


I to have used the bachmann oil and liked it but agree the the price is way to high for what you get ......

I have been useing synergyn assembly lube on things that need to conduct and so far have liked it .....

. it coats well does not attact plastic and does not stop conduction and does not run away


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## pete (Jan 2, 2008)

Where do find the assemdly lube? Thanks for the information


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Scott, does it have moly in it? 

And, I believe you, but how did you find out it does not attack plastic? 

Regards, Greg


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## Trains West (Oct 4, 2008)

I got mine at the local speed shop ...... but they are on line too I think 


no moly ....I hate moly I have seen it tear up high load heavy equipment ( I am a machinist by trade )

some of my oil tests where by trial and error ........

I did all the repairs for our local bio-park railroad for years and I was looking for ways to cut down the amount of work I had to do and one big way was to find some oil and grease that would stay put and hold up becouse I could not get the guys that run the trains to do much in the way of maintenance ......... 

when picking I would first start by puting a very thin strip of cheap styrene into the oil or grease and see if it would mess it up in a week or month or year if not then I would try it ........

most oils that I found would oil a bearing just fine but coat the electrical pickup as a electrical insulator and the loco would have power pickup problems .... this did not happen right away but took some run time to make the pickup not work 

this lube did not and the power pickup got better with the lube then none at all so I started using it all the time and things went very well ........


the grease I like only on gears as it will work its way up a gear stack if put at the bottom and will not melt away in heat ....... sometimes here it van get to 110 degrees outside and I am sure that in the gearbox it was more like 140 and a lot of hobby grease would just melt and run away from the bearings ....... this stuff would still be there when I got the loco back on the next round ......... so I started telling the local club and others tryed it and as far as I know there has been no down side ....... most of the bio park locos would get 10000 to 15000 hours in there life .........


and I do agree that a dry lube would be better but none that I have tryed work long enough for me ........


I have also found that a lot of the oils put on locos from china do not help the conduction of the power pickup and has to be cleaned off .........

and that black stuff that makes the wheels look great also does not conduct well ..... so you need to use a bright boy and clean it off the tread and back of the wheel if it has wipers ......

I just did a speeder from usa ( the old k-line one ) and it went from not running at all out of the box to running great with just this oil grease and thaking the black off the wheel where the pickups ride ......


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I just got a bottle of the synergen assembly lube and it seems like good stuff. It's thick and slippery and doesn't seem like it will run off with heat. It's almost like a gel


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## Rayman4449 (Jan 2, 2008)

I like Scott use Mobil 1 oil and more recently the grease for the last 4 years. I use the extended life version now. 


Raymond


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