MMM Restoration - Lubricants

Gunky Crawler Guts

Many of the MMM community have discussed the proper lubricants to use with Mattel's Man in Space toys. I've heard everything from WD40 to Vegetable Oil. I tend to shy away from lubricants that are petroleum based, as they appear to eat up some of the vinyl-type gearing, especially in the Uni-Tred and Space Crawler. I've heard some use Lithium Grease, or other synthetic. I usually use a little Silicone Lubricant that is available in an aerosol-style spray can at the Car Parts store. This spray seems to work well with any plastic and doesn't appear to clog up parts or melt plastic. Here are some other ideas:

Space Crawler

Space Crawler Oil Hole

The little "oil here" hole under the bottom is often the culprit of Crawlers not working... the petroleum lubricants that were common back in the 60's many times have the effect to eating away at the plastic gearing. Usually, when this is the case, the "wheels" turn freely and simply won't grab, even if the motor still works. More information in the MMM Space Crawler Restoration page.

Astro Trac

03-18-02 - I recently cleaned up my old Astro Trac, and got it going again via polishing the contacts with fine sandpaper.

It worked great. The only problem was that it was making a high pitched noise. I discovered that it came from the motor shaft on the side that anchors the motor to the body. I put one little drop of oil (about the tip of a toothpick amount) on this outer shaft, and the squealing stopped!

As stated above, we make no guarantees of any of these cleaning and restoration techniques and provide a listing of what's been tried as a service only. Try these procedures at your own risk.

Finally, should anybody reading this have any similar information, additions or corrections, then we would very much appreciate hearing about them.

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