@Michael Cimba 040217 posted:Thanks Rob, I will follow the diagram. The way it was wired probably caused it to fail in the first place. Yes, the General's are a pain. I had to study it for a while to figure out how it even came apart. There is not a lot of room in there.
Michael
Well, based on a couple of responses, you have a couple of options. As ADCX Bob mentioned, attaching to the PCB would suspend its operation while in neutral. I don't know where it would need to be attached for that. It appears that was not thoroughly thought out by Lionel as it damaged the PCB. I'd go with the wiring diagram as presented by JonG. Keeping in mind that anytime there is power to the track, the smoke unit heater will be active. The heating element, as you can imagine, has a high power draw. I wish Lionel would have kept the on/off switch. In any event, keep fluid in the smoke unit. Don't drown with smoke fluid as to much will prevent it from operating properly (see note below). I use Seuthe smoke fluid and put 3 to 5 drops in (sorry, it's not an exact science). Something I also do is put a few drops in if I'm not going to run it for a while. It keeps the wick material moist, the intent is to keep it from drying out.
Steve
note: the chamber that contains the wick and various other pieces of the smoke unit was/is supposed to be a sealed (based on my observations) unit. Some were not assembled correctly, i.e. not sealed properly. Therefore, over filling the smoke unit could cause the smoke fluid to seep out around the area where the smoke unit was supposed to be sealed. Then you get smoke fluid on the under parts of the lok and possible on the track and in extreme cases on the material that the track is laying on.
