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Reply to "Lionel PW Questions..."

Just read the above and was thinking that a easy check with your meter would be to see if the brushes are getting current. If not, check the short black wire on the E-unit for power where it's soldered to the 4 fingered contact. If there is power there, then somehow the power isn't flowing to the drum, and the cause could be either a dirty drum or contact finger. The solution is to carefully clean the the drum without bending the contact fingers out of their position and see if power is restored. Another possibility is the pin that the drum rotates on has become worn and the drum is moving out of position when the plunger pulls up and rotates the drum, breaking electrical contact. The pivot points on the drum should be fairly tight in the holes punched for them in the e-unit side frames. I've found that any noticeable up or sideways movement means excessive drum pivot wear and drum replacement is needed because those narrow contact fingers are fairly unforgiving and only make good contact with the drum when the drum isn't moving around excessively in the side frames of the E-unit. Usually, the pivot on side of the drum that the black power wire is will be the side that's worn the worst. A lot of heat can be generated there if the commutator is dirty or the motor is pulling more current than normal for whatever reason, and I think all of that heat actually melts the pin some and reduces the pivot's diameter, making it loose in it's mounting hole and moving out of position when the plunger goes up.  I'm making a assumption (yeah, I know how that goes, lol.) that the e-unit coil is functioning the way it's supposed to, which means power is being delivered to the lug where the coil lead and what I call the power lead (short black wire ) is soldered. I've had to change out the E-unit drums on most of my engines that I've acquired over the last 10 yrs because of worn pivot points. That will mean taking the E-unit apart. There's some good videos around on how to do that. Be warned, it's a process that takes patience to get all the pieces lined up to snap the unit back together, but if I can do it with my shaky hands, I'm sure you'll get it done.  Once it's back together and working properly, you shouldn't have to go back into it for another 60 yrs. Good Luck!

P.S. another good indication that E-unit drum is faulty is that it will work some of time. If you have to cycle it ( turning the engine on and off) more than 3 times to get it to move, the drum is worn and needs to replaced and clean the brush holders and commutators as well as checking the soldered joints for good connections. There's no sense in putting a new drum in the E-unit if the cause of the overheating isn't found.

Last edited by Ed Horan

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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