Lionel 397 coal loader repair belt replacement 

Excellent that was the plan and great job on the Lionel accessory repair.

Thanks for watching and very happy this helped!

Great work and since I used other's videos when I was starting to do Lionel repairs I wanted to return the favor, thanks for watching.

So mine stopped working. Opened it up and there was a lot of dried grease. Cleaned it up and used labelle 102 gear lube. Now it’s working again. Do I need something thicker? I saw online something called Lucas red n tacky which seems more thick like yours ?

@@Boilermaker86765 Good question and hard to say but as long as it has oil or grease just inspect it from time to time.

Thanks for watching and always glad to help out on the repairs, Happy Railroading.

I checked the parts diagram and I have the 2 springs they show to keep it tight on the drive cog which rattles the bin. Glad yours is woking again too.

I'm trying to understand your point so I checked the parts diagrams again in Greenberg's Repair Manual but it isn't showing those springs, just the single tray spring, perhaps there is something else going on here? It specifies on P465 to "Be sure the cams are assembled to the shaft as illustrated (shown both as set similar), or they will catch on the cam followers and jam the coal loader." Then on P463 it says "If the two cam followers do not strike their cams simultaneously, the vibrating action of the scoop will be uneven, causing the coal to pile up on one side of the scoop." I looked on ebay and google too and couldn't find them so maybe they could be added on to improve performance?

Thanks for watching and the reply since others have said the same thing. Perhaps there are more than one production run of these and I am unable to find any photos of these double springs, even in the repair manual. I am curious if yours has the single tray spring in the center like mine or just the 2 on the outside?

you can buy a new shaft. I have the same problem as you and need to replace the belt and this shaft.

thanks for the video. picked one of these up off craigslist today for $45. needs belt and shaft.

@@riggziestrains8082 Always fun to have more accessories to mess with:)

@@trainzone1073 Isn't the play you are seeing suppose to be there so it actually vibrates (jiggles) to collect and move the coal towards the belt?

On Greenberg's Repair and Operating Manual for Lionel Trains (a must have for all of us) on page 463 it talks about this and mentions wrapping some tape around the supports under the belt to form an inner loop to keep coal pieces from jamming inside, or if it is an early design, obtaining a later design of that piece under/inside the belt which has an extra guard, and using proper size screened coal ( I personally believe they want the smallest particles disgarded since they would fall inside. Hope this helps good luck with the repairs.

Thanks for watching and that is a great question. Perhaps one of the surfaces is uneven, or does it work better fastened down or operating free standing, or does the cardboard have something to do with it?

@@trainzone1073 it needs a board because the cardboard is too thin and it vibrates way to much on the cardboard

@@bryanbar2009 They do vibrate a bunch while they are making all that noise too:)

The little board that fits underneath the tray like in the video vibrates right out from the tray and falls off and because the cardboard and it is riding on particle board because the cardboard is too thin and it is possibly going to screw up the motor and the coal doesn’t ride up the tray correctly what is the problem is it the cardboard riding on the particle board

And why did you use that compared to white lithium grease?

It sure might have been, just what I had sitting around, good eye.

@@OhFU1 I had that sitting around left over from a truck wheel bearing job and I don't have a container of white lithium but I do have some white lithium grease in spray cans and I love that for motorcycle chains and lots of other stuff too.