# Lionel 736 Clean and Lube



## erkenbrand (Dec 6, 2010)

Last weekend, a friend of mine dug through his paren't attic and recovered the train he last saw 20+ years ago. As it turned out, the engine is a 736 Berkshire with the 736W tender plus a few cars for the consist. He also dug out a pile of O track and a couple of O22 switches.

He really wanted to get it running for his almost 3 year old son who's in love with trains. So, he asked me to take a look at it for him. Below is what I found . . . 

Overall, it was all in great shape. The cars were easy, just a couple of drops of light oil and they were rolling as smoothly as could be. He went to work cleaning the track, and I attacked the engine.

Apparently, at some point somebody decided to clean the track with steel wool. The magnetraction sucked all of that up, and I found it all over the place. I also found all of the original grease had hardened. It hadn't run in 20 years, so it was time to clean everything.














































Step 1: Take it apart.

This was a really easy engine to tear down. Just a few screws and the carriage separated from the shell.

The first is to pull the boiler door. I did this because his door was a bit bent from an unfortunate derailment. You don't absolutely have to do this, but you do have to open the door and unclip the lantern from its mount.










These four screws come out and then you can drop the carriage. The frontmost of these is tucked away, so make sure you have a smaller bladed flathead. (Sorry the photo doesn't capture that.)










Step 2: Clean the steel wool

I used Q-tips with Goo Gone. The Goo Gone cleaned up all of the oil while the Q-Tips captured the steel wool. I went through every nook and cranny and crevice. All of this on the undercarriage before getting to the motor.

Step 3: Remove the motor

This is really easy. Two screws and up it comes. Don't unsolder or cut the wires.










You can kind of see in there. The old grease is a hard crust, and worst of all there's some shiny steel wool caught up in it.










More gunked grease on the engine:










After cleaning and lots of patience, it all looks shiny again:










I also used some contact cleaner in the E-unit and motor to clean up all of the contacts. Don't do anything until that's all dried out . . . give it an hour at least. 

Step 4: Lube

I used gear lube on the driving gear. A few drops, then bolt the motor back in. Rotate the assembly a few times to make sure it's all still aligned correctly and the lubrication is being picked up.

I then used the light oil and put a drop or two on every other moving and rotating piece. 

Once it was all done the rotating assemblies all moved very freely.

Step 5: Put it all back together

This is the easy part. Just reverse the take down. Hope you didn't lose any screws! 

We put it on the test track and it went like a champ. The smoker really rocks on this, at least when compared to my 2026 and 2018.










His son is terrified of the whistle in the tender, so we won't be doing that anymore.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

That's great!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Unfortunately, my attic does not have one.

That is why I do cleaning, so I can take pictures of engines I don't have.


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## servoguy (Jul 10, 2010)

I have a 736 on the track in my BR. When I push it with my hand, the wheels turn freely. I don't have to add downward pressure to make the wheels turn. Just the weight of the loco is enough. This should be a good calibration procedure to make sure everything is properly lubed and adjusted.


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## servoguy (Jul 10, 2010)

Did you put oil in the hole in the top of the motor housing?


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## erkenbrand (Dec 6, 2010)

Thanks for the feedback - yup, the engine moves easily. With just a bit of forward pressure it rolls. I did oil the motor as well.

I do cleanings for the same reason. I don't have one of my own, but I can still play with them.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

I CAN HEAR IT NOW! "Neighbor, that engine needs lotsa work maybe a few more weeks! It may be ready by then, maybe not". 

Meanwhile back in the basement, TooT TooT BRRrrRRRRRRRRRRR.


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## servoguy (Jul 10, 2010)

Yeah, T, these things can take a long time. Maybe several years

One never knows until one examines all the facts and circumstances of the problem at hand


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## erkenbrand (Dec 6, 2010)

And it definitely needs to be run on several types of track, through several types of switches, with a varying consist before you know whether or not everything is properly operational. That can take a few months to get right.


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## rrbill (Mar 11, 2012)

How does a 736 locomotive do on 0-27 track, including the curves? Can it negotiate the switches alright, or does it stumble here? Any mechanical problems with one that require frequent attention?


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

And just another thing for you guys to know, that's not a 736W tender. The 736W is a Pennsylvania RR lettered tender that they mated with the berks in the late 1950's through the 60's.

Another thing on the lubrication job (you may have done this already), but make sure you lubricate the bearings at both ends of the motor, and a tiny drop on the end of the armature shaft where it passes through the brush housing. Most people just use the hole that's in the motor housing, but that lube is just going to the lower bearing while the upper one stays high and dry. If you really want it to run smoothly, a total motor overhaul would be the best. Just remove the commutator by releasing the spring clip on the bottom, carefully clean up the bearings and all the other washers (watch what order they come off in), run some q-tips through the lower housing to clean out any old grease, put it back together, lube the bearings and it'll be the smoothest running postwar locomotive you've seen .... assuming you got it put back together right


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## erkenbrand (Dec 6, 2010)

Yup, I pulled the motor completely apart. Cleaned, polished, lubed, and spent a great deal of time digging out the old grease. It was in desperate need of the teardown. 

From what my friend has told me, it's running well through the curves, but I haven't been back over since rebuild night and watching it take a couple of test passes.


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## servoguy (Jul 10, 2010)

Some of the 726/736 motors have ball thrust bearings. If you take them apart, you may be looking for the smallest ball bearings ever made. They are really tiny.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

rrbill said:


> How does a 736 locomotive do on 0-27 track, including the curves? Can it negotiate the switches alright, or does it stumble here? Any mechanical problems with one that require frequent attention?


I run prewar tinplate. The locos have a really tough time navigating my O27 switches ... power dropout, inadvertent e-unit reversal, etc.

I only have a few postwar locos ... a 221, couple of Scouts. These generally do better ont he O21 switches, but all in all, I'm itchin' to rip out all of my O27 track and start over with true O someday.


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## servoguy (Jul 10, 2010)

726/736 will not work well with O-27 1122 switches. They may work OK with 1121 switches, I haven't tried it.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

servoguy said:


> Some of the 726/736 motors have ball thrust bearings. If you take them apart, you may be looking for the smallest ball bearings ever made. They are really tiny.


Well, I haven't lost any of mine. As long as you do it on a workbench with a towel down, they shouldn't bounce away. Mine ran like crap before I did a complete tear down. Now it's one of my smoothest running engines and that's even over some of my modern can motor ones (maybe not that good, but it's really smooth) New brushes also helped things a bit.


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