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I recently bought a 180 W Power House off e-bay and while it appears to be working (19 VAC output no load) the power switch indicator light is not working and it showed up with all four cover mount base plate stand offs broke but still attached to the top cover.  The broken stand offs were still attached to the top cover by screws with anti tamper heads (I guess that's Lionel's way of telling you there's no user serviceable parts?) and suspect previous owner wanted in for some reason perhaps to get to the switch. 

After checking it out I noticed the wire bundle going up to the power switch was very warm and after removing a heat shrink cover noted there's a 1.2 meg-ohm resistor which I assumed was wired to the non functional indicator light and is what is getting hot (see attached). 

For those familiar with the Power House inner workings my questions are:

1)  Does the switch look like it's original or what's supposed to be there and am I correct in assuming the clear section is supposed to light up while powered?

2) More importantly, does the switch wiring with resistor look right and should it be getting hot?  

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There are several threads on that pilot light in the last few years. That resistor is something in the ten thousands of ohms I remember. Anyway, it's all in the thread as well as the switch part number which is a common switch. One issue is a lack of a diode to protect the LED from the reverse voltage of the AC input. Something we have remedied when replacing the switch. 

cjack posted:

There are several threads on that pilot light in the last few years. That resistor is something in the ten thousands of ohms I remember. Anyway, it's all in the thread as well as the switch part number which is a common switch. One issue is a lack of a diode to protect the LED from the reverse voltage of the AC input. Something we have remedied when replacing the switch. 

cjack, Thanks, here's what I think I got after reading thru a number of posts and finding your diagram. 

Adding a diode and 1 watt 10K resistor as shown to a suitable replacement switch such as below should provide a reasonable solution to the lost pilot light problem.

 

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