# Cleaning a K-Line Pacific K4



## seabilliau (Dec 12, 2011)

Thought I would post my series of Picts documenting my cleaning of a k-line atsf pacific K4. 

Here is the loco as I received it from a buyer on eBay. Everything worked well. Had a few chips and scratches and the tires on the rear driver were coming off. 










Started off by removing the trailing truck. The screw holding the trailing truck and the one behind the pilot are the only two holding the shell on.


















It is important to remember to unscrew this part of the drive rods on each side before you attempt to remove the shell. 










Once you take the shell off the chassis and gears are pretty accessible. I lubed all the gears with 5w30. 









Next I unscrewed the motor from the chassis. Not pictured are the drivers I took off. Of note is the wire that goes down to the rollers just sits between the roller plate upon which the rollers stem from and the chassis. 










It comes off easily with two screws. 










I cleaned off the old grease. 










Tinsel from a Christmas past. 










This part would not come out but you can see the gear assembly on the lower side. Once I removed all the drivers the assembly was easy to clean. 










Shell










Of note here is the smoke system. Not sure what this type is called but I did find out that if it is touching the shell it could short out the rails. At least when I moved it from touching the shell she came back to life. 










Also this part, Jeff at train tender calls it a Marx-37c, costs two dollars to replace if it breaks. Just thought you'd like to know. Also he only had them in grey. 


















Here she is all cleaned up. Thanks for reading.


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## lionellines (May 18, 2011)

That must be an older model. I have one of the last ones made, and the internals look much different.


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## captaincog (Oct 7, 2012)

It is an early K-Line with the sleuth smoke unit.


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## seabilliau (Dec 12, 2011)

Thanks Cap'n. I googled sleuths mike unit and read a post on ogrr that I should keep the wick wet. I assume I can use any old smoke fluid?


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

If you have a Seuthe smoke unit, you should ONLY use the proper fluid, the Lionel/MTH fluid is not correct for that unit. Seuthe fluid is not mineral oil based, but rather petroleum based, the Lionel/MTH standard smoke fluid will gum it up and kill it.


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## seabilliau (Dec 12, 2011)

Ooops.... Guess I have a little cleaning to do. hwell:


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Common mistake from what I read.


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## captaincog (Oct 7, 2012)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> If you have a Seuthe smoke unit, you should ONLY use the proper fluid, the Lionel/MTH fluid is not correct for that unit. Seuthe fluid is not mineral oil based, but rather petroleum based, the Lionel/MTH standard smoke fluid will gum it up and kill it.


I meant to reply sooner to this , so sorry about that. Williams by Bachmann sells Seuthe smoke fluid or you can use Mega-Steam without any issues from what I have experienced. I hope this helps.


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## captaincog (Oct 7, 2012)

After reading this post I am thinking about converting one to TMCC with ERR stuff. I just have to figure out the controller board and mounting the sound in the tender. Any suggestions?


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

captaincog said:


> After reading this post I am thinking about converting one to TMCC with ERR stuff. I just have to figure out the controller board and mounting the sound in the tender. Any suggestions?


Depending on the space available, you may have to mount both the TMCC board and the sound in the tender. For those installations, I use the MTH tether parts between the locomotive and tender, they're the best looking one with enough leads to allow a full functioning conversion. Sometimes you can fit the TMCC board in the locomotive, but I've never seen one you could get the RailSounds Commander in as well.

If you do the conversion, I recommend the ERR Cruise Commander and RailSounds Commander combo. Bill at Modern Toy Train Parts sells them at a discount, a package price for $185 for the pair.

If you decide to use the MTH tether parts, the MTH engine harness including the 10 pin socket is PN BC-1000003, the tender harness including the 10 pin plug is PN BC-1000002. When I bought them, the were $15 and $8 respectively, but I have no idea what they are currently.


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## captaincog (Oct 7, 2012)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> Depending on the space available, you may have to mount both the TMCC board and the sound in the tender. For those installations, I use the MTH tether parts between the locomotive and tender, they're the best looking one with enough leads to allow a full functioning conversion. Sometimes you can fit the TMCC board in the locomotive, but I've never seen one you could get the RailSounds Commander in as well.
> 
> If you do the conversion, I recommend the ERR Cruise Commander and RailSounds Commander combo. Bill at Modern Toy Train Parts sells them at a discount, a package price for $185 for the pair.
> 
> If you decide to use the MTH tether parts, the MTH engine harness including the 10 pin socket is PN BC-1000003, the tender harness including the 10 pin plug is PN BC-1000002. When I bought them, the were $15 and $8 respectively, but I have no idea what they are currently.


Thanks for the tether info since I am wondering what people have been using. What about using a mini commander v2 in the loco and railsounds in the tender since it looks like that would fit. Would there be any issues?


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

The only issue with the MiniCommander 2 is that it's limited to 2A maximum drive. Of course, it also doesn't have cruise, so for a little additional you get a lot more capability.

As far as tethers, I used to buy them from Digital Dynamics, but they went out of business. Then I discovered the MTH part, and it's better anyway. The only issue with the MTH is fitting the locomotive connector, since it's designed to mount on the frame and project through the shell. It takes some surgery on Lionel locomotives.


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