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I wasn't about to put BB in subject line!!  okay since second week of January I have tried getting blow down to work finally gave up until tonight.

 

it was either work or "else"! so Mike at lionel says use pipette load to first line for each smoke feature!

I did nada nope raised its head and laughed at me!

 

so added another recommended pipette fill waited and hit blow down button still nothing not even with the cover off boiler tried blowing into that hole literally. still nothing.

 

added yet another pipette were talking 80 drops folks this time I held the blow down button on remote down and at same time put my mouth smack over that hole and blew the living snot out of it and bam now the blow down comes out the openings by rear boiler openings.

 

I am a happy person now it all works finally!  thanks for reading yet another BB post.

 

P.S. nary a drop of liquid smoke came out of those openings as the homasote was totally dry on both sides where the BB was sitting.

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On this forum, it doesn't get any better than this; folks telling their fixes.

My BB blowdown stopped working too.

It will pour smoke out the fill hole when pressing the button but not the blowdown holes.

I have been gently puffing on the hole with blowdown off - nada.

So, you put fluid in it, held down the blowdown button, then blew the snot out of it?

RickM46

Last edited by RickM46

 

RickM46, yes after filling blow down with smoke fluid toss air puff to the side literally hold blow down button down and take a deep breath and put lips over that hole and blow as hard as you can I am thinking possibly a foreign piece or a really stubborn meniscus somewhere became dislodged.

 

it has worked flawlessly since.

gunrunnerjohn,  I understand what your saying about overfilling but for mine that quantity worked along with the very forceful bag o hot air I sent into that unit.

 

now seeing you have seen the outside chamber size of blow down smoke unit is it possible mine was so dry that it took that 80 drops to get things in a happy place?

 

main smoke stack output at medium setting with 20 drops is reduced to half output going only 3 laps which equals 60 feet of track and after 6 laps requires another 15 drops of smoke fluid.

this is with efx set at maximum and train brake at more than 2/3rds of maximum setting.

 

if you haven't tried that please do if all here think the whistle is awesome you haven't heard anything yet!

 

so far I have refilled blow down once since 9am this morning.

 

thanks again gunrunner for the heads up on overfilling blow down unit.

 

So, when the loco is new and dry, you ought to go heavy on the first dose of fluid - per grj, 2/3 of a MegaSteam dropper in the stacks, 1/2 a dropper each in the whistle and blow down.  Seems logical since the fiberglass wad will need to be soaked.

 

This is tremendous info for a new and dry loco.

 

I have been very conservative in adding fluid - doing the Lionel pipette and only putting a line's worth per unit.  Now that I have been watching smoke production closely, I can tell when smoke production is dropping off.  Then, I shut off the smoke using the remote till I can add more - usually let it cool down a bit.

 

St. Paul, thanks for the info on how you fixed the blowdown - will try the same thing.

 

So, grj, how much of a MegaSteam dropper do you put in for a refill?

RickM46

And now it starts.

Thanks grj,

I think it is important for the smoke unit to keep an eye on smoke production.

Since I've had the BB and the Lionchief+ B&O, I can tell when smoke is waning and then, after cooldown, add more fluid.  Still experimenting with the doseage as not to overfill.  But, for the BB, I will start using 1/3 of a MegaSteam dropper.

However, the Berkshire junior that came with the Polar Express set smokes as much as the BB and goes a long time - one heck of a little engine!

RickM46

And now it starts.

Originally Posted by ST PAUL:

 

RickM46, yes after filling blow down with smoke fluid toss air puff to the side literally hold blow down button down and take a deep breath and put lips over that hole and blow as hard as you can I am thinking possibly a foreign piece or a really stubborn meniscus somewhere became dislodged.

 

it has worked flawlessly since.

ST PAUL,

Worked on the blow down on the BB to get it smoking again.

Used your prescription in the following way:

Used the Lionel pipette and put 1 line of Lionel Premium into it.

Got a drinking straw which fit the fill hole tightly - made it easier to blow into the unit.

While leaning on the blow down button, blew strongly into the unit.

This took about 4 long sequences of leaning on the button and blowing into the unit.

Now, it works - how about that!!

RickM46

And now it starts.

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