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Lionel Maintenance & Repair / HO Scale SP GS-4 Squeaky Motor and Slow
« Last post by TwoRailsIsPlenty on September 14, 2018, 09:30:10 am »Hello all,
New guy here with a motor problem (I think). I recently purchased a vintage Lionel HO Scale Southern Pacific GS-4 Daylight from the late 1970s if I'm not mistaken. It was pretty dirty when I bought it but was functional and in pretty good shape aesthetically. The thing squeals like a banshee under full power and its speed tops out around 2-3 inches per second, pretty slow. I've since cleaned up the exterior and carefully disassembled the motor to lubricate it. Took out the brushes and lightly removed the oxidation on the top layer and greased the drive gears in the hopes that would fix the speed issue. No change unfortunately, still slow, still squealing. Curiously, even with an 11-12 car consist it'll maintain that low speed and if I push it along it will eventually lose the squeak and run full throttle, it just can't get there by itself. By full throttle I mean it'll go so fast it leans in the corners, any faster and it would come flying off the rails so the motor still has some function it just won't get there without help. I have not dealt with this motor type much (most of my GS-4's are Bachmann) nor can I find any videos or first-hand accounts that deal with this issue so any advice this group can provide would be helpful, thanks!
New guy here with a motor problem (I think). I recently purchased a vintage Lionel HO Scale Southern Pacific GS-4 Daylight from the late 1970s if I'm not mistaken. It was pretty dirty when I bought it but was functional and in pretty good shape aesthetically. The thing squeals like a banshee under full power and its speed tops out around 2-3 inches per second, pretty slow. I've since cleaned up the exterior and carefully disassembled the motor to lubricate it. Took out the brushes and lightly removed the oxidation on the top layer and greased the drive gears in the hopes that would fix the speed issue. No change unfortunately, still slow, still squealing. Curiously, even with an 11-12 car consist it'll maintain that low speed and if I push it along it will eventually lose the squeak and run full throttle, it just can't get there by itself. By full throttle I mean it'll go so fast it leans in the corners, any faster and it would come flying off the rails so the motor still has some function it just won't get there without help. I have not dealt with this motor type much (most of my GS-4's are Bachmann) nor can I find any videos or first-hand accounts that deal with this issue so any advice this group can provide would be helpful, thanks!
