How to lubricate a Portram?

[nah00]

I have Kato TLR605 that seems a bit to loud. I took the shell off the chassis (that was an adventure...) and then took off the seat part and proceeded to be baffled as to where I would lubricant. I didn't disassemble the trucks but I'm guessing that somehow the comes off of them...?

 

[IST]

Good question, as you saw it in another topic this is an issue for me as well, so I am curious also. Let's see if someone has a good solution!

[kvp]

For starters the whole mechanical assembly is in the bogies. This means you don't have to disassemble the tram itself, just remove the bottom of the bogies. Then you can lubricate the whole mechanism. The only problem is how to assemble it again as the parts are so small, that i'm not sure it can be done easily.

 

An alternative is to lubricate the bigger gear that is visible and at the 4 points behind the wheels and hope that it gets spread out across the rest of the gearing. This does not require any disassembly. There is no easy way to get to the worm gear though, maybe by lubricating on the worm gear side behind the flywheel.

 

photos are here: http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/2828-kato-portram-disassembly-pictures/

 

[cteno4]

Yeah these are really really hard to work on. Everything mechanical is w.innthe trucks as kvp pointed out and they are very fiddly to pull apart. I took one about halfway apart a few months back for one that was growling and stopped as soon as I found the hair that was causing it! I would do as kvp suggested and see if lubing thru the gear slots will do it. Use very small amounts of oil at a time and run for a bit. 

 

The kato portram is amazing it has all the mechanical built into the truck, but it's also a major drawback when there is trouble.

 

take a look at the pictures and I think there is another link in the thread to a disassembly blog post somewhere if memory serves me right.

 

good luck

 

jeff

[IST]

5 hours ago, kvp said:

An alternative is to lubricate the bigger gear that is visible and at the 4 points behind the wheels and hope that it gets spread out across the rest of the gearing. This does not require any disassembly. There is no easy way to get to the worm gear though, maybe by lubricating on the worm gear side behind the flywheel.

 

Let's try the lubricating in the club next time (if I do not forget to carry my trams there)!

I do not afraid to dissassemble my trams, but I do not think I can do it back...

[cteno4]

Ist,

 

lol, you got it on this one! It's the assembly that is touchy as these are so tiny and it's not super apperant how thing fit together as I. Regular n train models. a few parts also want to try to go sprong when you pull it apart.

 

also might try running it with wire to wheels and see if you can hear if one truck is noisy. That was the issue with mine, only one truck got gummed up with a small hair wound up in the gears, so I only had to really work on one of them.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[nah00]

I think I'll try around the four wheels. There seems to be a slight notch to get in the needle tip for the oil in there, also will probably check to see if it's one or both trucks too. 

[nah00]

10 hours ago, kvp said:

 

An alternative is to lubricate the bigger gear that is visible and at the 4 points behind the wheels and hope that it gets spread out across the rest of the gearing. This does not require any disassembly. There is no easy way to get to the worm gear though, maybe by lubricating on the worm gear side behind the flywheel.

 

 

Where is the bigger gear? I couldn't see any through the small holes in the bogie. Also the tabs to open up the bogie look a bit too fiddly for my tastes so I'll probably skip on disassembly. 

[kvp]

43 minutes ago, nah00 said:

 

Where is the bigger gear? I couldn't see any through the small holes in the bogie.

If you look from the front of the bogie you should see the edge of it around the middle, on the flywheel side. Inside the bit larger rectangular hole. The bogie probably has to be tipped on its mounting point to make this side accessible.

 

ps: imho not taking something apart that is very hard to assemble is always a good idea...

[nah00]

Against my better judgement I decided to take off the bottom of the bogie to get access to the gears. Luckily there was no major disaster or loss of parts but it does require a steady hand. There are two black plastic clips on the sides that hold the bogie together, you can VERY carefully pry them off with a small flat head screwdriver and then you're able to use the tab on the bogey front to lift the cover off. If you do this I STRONGLY advise taking the body shell off (you kind of have to take off the clips) and make sure that the frame is on a flat service where it's not going to move. You can gain access to all the gears this way, even the TINY worm gear. I didn't find anything stuck anywhere in the gearing so i just added a bit of oil to the gears along the side of the bogie and the worm gear. It's still a bit noisy but no more so than the HB-E300. I suspect due to it's size it's always going to be a bit whiny but the scratching noise definitely abated after oiling and running it around the track for a bit.