Choo-Choo sound has gone away

Hi, I also replaced a wick and wire in my 1948 312 last week. Have better smoke and choo choo is ok normal. 

Now your problem? Is your 312 somke in boiler?

is the piston metal or sintered iron? Did you install the top gasket correctley?

did it cover the sound chamber. Did you put the two screws that hold the smoke unit in place. One screw goes into the bottom of the sound chamber. If it's not there you will be blowing air thru the screw hole. 

How my ohms does your smoke uint have. I unwound mine and wound up with 31.5 ohms. I was going for 35ohms from 70 or so ohms

the old wire had 53 ohms and the wick was like a ball of wax.

any questions ask me or let me know when and how you fixed your problem.

jake

 

 

 

 

One more thing. Did you seal the two holes or eyelets that the heater wire comes up thru with solder?

The smoke unit is in the boiler.  I replaced all of the screws that I took out .  However, will check to see if the top cover is on tight, making sure the gasket is seated correctly.  I measured 35 ohms on the heater wire.  Here's a photo right after I took the it apart, before I did any work on it.  Also, I added a mini on/off slide switch for the smoke unit.  I mounted it just under the 4-wire connector on the back of the cab.  Works great.  The small bridge rectifier on the motor terminal drops the voltage by 1.2 volts, so more volts go to the smoke unit .   Smoke output is noticeably better.

 

 

 

I think I know the problem.  I used only 1 of the 2 holes to thread the wick, down to the lower chamber.  So, I need to seal the unused hole to see if the chuffing sound returns.  The engine still smokes great.

I would clean the plunger.  Flyer recommends no oil on the plunger.  Clean it real well and also the inside where the plunger runs and see if it gets louder.  Also check the hole in the small metal plate in front of the plunger and the rear of the smoke unit to make sure it is clear.  Oil could be clogging it.

NO oil!

Clean out the piston chamber with alcohol and clean the outside edge of the piston to get rid of the oil and make sure you have no air leaking out of the front screw hole, if necessary, put plumbers tape on it...

Marty

Did any of the above suggestions help you at all???

Marty

 

Am busy with Thanksgiving and family, and wedding plans for a daughter, so haven't had a chance to work on the engine yet.  Will post the results when get to it.   Thanks.

 

You need to put the wick in both holes, as that is what holds the heater parts in place: the heating section needs to be centered in the space formed by the cardboard "box", The hole into the chamber must be clear, as well as the "groove" going to the smokestack. The "choo" is caused by the air going past the sharp edges of the stamped metal plate, so that extra hole caused by the missing wick would not reduce your sound effect. I know it's hard to put the wick in those holes. I use a little super glue on the wick ends to make a stiff pointed end that goes into the hole easily. Afterwards I cut off that little "treated" end. After the heating part is nicely centered, I then feed the wire ends into the cover holes (the solder has to be "gone" to do this. once the cover is screwed down, I wrap the wires at least three or four times around the lug, as the solder doesn't really "stick" to to the nichrome wire, so you need a physical connection. the insulated wire should go into the hole, not too far though, then solder the area (a good rosin flux helps here--it should wick onto the wire and the lug and be shiny. 35-45 ohms is usually about right for lots of smoke--the lower the ohms rating, the hotter it gets, and the shorter use life it will have.

Thanks for the detailed explanation David.  BTW, what brand of smoke fluid to you recommend?   I hear that SuperSmoke from Bart's is good, but also expensive.  A lot of local shops here sell JT Megasteam.  Right now I have a 10 year bottle of MTH fluid that is almost depleted.

Also, I was thinking to wire my AF 312 engine so that the smoke element and light operate in neutral like the Lionel engines do.  That way the smoke is heated up already when the train starts down the track.

Dave

 

 

Smoke fluid from JT's is very good, If you already have a empty eye dropper bottle, then just buy the re-fill size.. They have a cedar scent like Flyer,  I connect the smoke and headlite wires to the tender truck rivets so they get stronger voltage, I use a mini two pin wire connector from engine to tender for a good disconnect.  The connectors I got from Micro Mark...

Marty

Hi Dave, AF smoke units tolerate many different kinds of fluid. Anormal's fluid is reportedly the same as the ACG formula. As for your re-wiring, you are doing the same thing ACG did with their "instant on" feature by adding a fifth wire to the engine. The brass rivet that holds the panel pieces together was used for the fifth wire. The only problem with this system is that the 4 wire plug has to be plugged in properly for it to work; which is why you find a spot of red paint on the panel and the plug, indicating the proper orientation for it. If you look at a wiring diagram, one brush on the engine is wired directly to one tender truck. This brush also has a wire going forward to the smoke unit and headlight. The other wire to the headlight/smoke unit is rerouted to the brass rivet, and a wire from the other tender truck (usually soldered into the reverse unit coil lead from that truck) also goes to the rivet. Voila, constant power to the smoke unit/headlight. Of course, this meant that one could not disconnect the tender from the engine without un-soldering the wire. Eventually this lead to the elimination of the plug and panel (and then the late reverse on motor units came into use, and the two wires now plugged into the tender.

I use a variety of smoke fluids, including those already mentioned, but another one is Proto Smoke.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MTH-60...1:g:5qUAAOSwImRYNMJC

I don't know anything about this vendor, just wanted to show a picture of the product, it too comes in a variety of scents as well as unscented.

I think it produces more smoke that the Anormal AC Gilbert replacement,