Reply to "Smoke unit wick replacement question?"

@bluedragon posted:

I have an LionChief Plus L&N GP7, and the smoke unit does not work .  The fan operates but the heat element does not appear to heat. When i opened it up, the element was covered with what looks like burnt wick, and it appears that part of the heating coil come off with the wick. When i touch the unit during running it does not seem to get warm/hot.  My questions are,   if i touch the element directly, Should it be hot or warm, if it does not heat would it be better to try to replace the element or the whole unit, and if so where do i get a new smoke unit?  Keep in mind i am in Japan and dont' have access to a train shop here.

Thanks.

Yes it should get hot.  I don't recommend touching a working smoke heating element (been there done that).

According to Lionel's parts site that unit should have a 16 Ohm element.  Use a meter and see if it reads 16 ohms (within 10%).  If it doesn't then you may need to replace the element - part number listed below.

The whole unit if your not comfortable working on it is available:

Jim