....in like forever! I definitely have my work cut out for me. There's no saving THIS wick!
Let the clean up and testing begin! Just a note...the Whistle Steam does/did actually work. No smoke from the main stack though.
|
Replies sorted oldest to newest
That thing is in great shape compared to some I’ve seen!…..it’s almost mint!…..wait till you see one melt the sides of the housings, melt the funnel, and char the batting so bad it’s nothing but ash, ……consider replacing the well done smoke resistors, and move the thermistors closer to the resistors,….the thermistors ( the little pinkish/orange dudes ) are the heat sensors …..when they build that lump of junk, they mash the thermistors too far away from the resistor to do any good,…..
Pat
Way ahead of ya @harmonyards. Already scoped out Lionel Parts and getting ready to place an order.
Melted housing? Melted funnel? That's insane!
There's no saving the resistors. And every post I've read re. the resistors recommend replacing them with the 8 ohm versions.
I need to clean up the "gunk" (technical term) too. It's like glue. I'm think Iso Alcohol and a lot of Q Tips.....
Gotta test the fans too. The blades look pretty good...now if they only spin!
Precisely why I only run smoke for brief periods, and on the lowest setting possible to produce a reasonable effect.
@RickO posted:Precisely why I only run smoke for brief periods, and on the lowest setting possible to produce a reasonable effect.
Negative Ghost Rider, they put smoke units on this earth to please us!….they shall be allowed to fulfill their destiny!…..😉
Pat
Hallelujah Brotha!
Sad to say, yes I have seen them much worse! When the smoke regulator lets go in TMCC or early Legacy, instead of 6-8 watts of power in the smoke unit, it gets around 40 watts. Great smoke for about 30 seconds, and then the meltdown begins! However, I can usually save the diecast smoke fluid reservoir.
Just tested the motors applying 5VDC. The Whistle Steam side motor worked , the stack side motor is locked up solid; won't budge even by g-e-n-t-l-y nudging the impeller.
Order already placed with Lionel Parts. Ordered 4 traction tires, 3 resistors, 2 motors, 1 gasket, 1 wick and a Partridge in a Pear Tree!
The preformed wick "block" NA; had to go with rope wick.
Hey John....
I just noticed....you're an ERR dealer too?
Replacing all the smoke unit parts will bring it back to life but if there is an electronic problem wouldn’t it happen all over again? How do you check for that?
@romiller49....
I had thought of that, but I had to start somewhere. And getting the smoke unit up to snuff would in my mind, be the logical place to start.
The smoke unit in this engine is not like others covered in the forum. The smoke unit circuit is really basic and only has the resistors, the thermistors and the 2 motors....no other electronic components.
There is a main board in the engine that the smoke unit connects to. If there's something fishy with that board, I'll have get some help and direction about what to check for.
As I mentioned earlier, the Whistle Steam does work (God knows how considering the condition its in). To me that's a good sign.
Hi the main thing to remember is what Pat had told you! The thermistors ( the little pinkish/orange dudes ) are the heat sensors …..when they build that lump of junk, they mash the thermistors too far away from the resistor to do any good! so make sure when you've installed the sensor s close to the resistor or it will overheat again and you'll be doing the job all over again! Alan
What engine are you working on Junior?….one point that John makes is a bad reg,…they can go full bore retard, and pump all the power to the resistors,….usually when that does happen, they become fire breathing monsters, …..albeit short lived…..
Pat
@Junior posted:I just noticed....you're an ERR dealer too?
Yep.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Yep.
That's EXCELLENT....you have a new Customer!
@harmonyards posted:What engine are you working on Junior?….one point that John makes is a bad reg,…they can go full bore retard, and pump all the power to the resistors,….usually when that does happen, they become fire breathing monsters, …..albeit short lived…..
Pat
Hey Pat...
This is a Lionmaster Challenger 6-82694. My layout uses 072 and 054 curves so I'm restricted to Lionmaster for being able to run the longer engines.
And I'm totally hooked on Whistle Steam. IMHO, it's one of Lionel's greatest innovations.
@Alan Mancus posted:Hi the main thing to remember is what Pat had told you! The thermistors ( the little pinkish/orange dudes ) are the heat sensors …..when they build that lump of junk, they mash the thermistors too far away from the resistor to do any good! so make sure when you've installed the sensor s close to the resistor or it will overheat again and you'll be doing the job all over again! Alan
Oh yeah.....Thanks for the reminder Alan. I'll be posting pics once I get the parts from Lionel.
@RickO posted:Precisely why I only run smoke for brief periods, and on the lowest setting possible to produce a reasonable effect.
Rick....I owe you a response from another/different post of mine. I was trying to figure out how the smoke unit was mounted in the engine shell.
There's a front bracket that screws to the smoke unit and the engine shell. I removed the bracket but the smoke unit was still solid in the shell.
The smoke unit has a friction fit with the shell's stack. Once I nudged the unit it popped loose from the shell.....a lot less complicated that I thought it might be!
Having received the smoke unit parts a few months ago, I finally have time to work on the smoke unit. I do have a question though regarding removal of the resistors from the smoke unit circuit board.
Is there some trick to getting the resistors off the smoke unit board? I tried heating up the wire leads with my soldering iron (at what appears to be the soldering pad) but the leads aren't budging. Has anyone encountered this problem?
@Junior posted:Is there some trick to getting the resistors off the smoke unit board? I tried heating up the wire leads with my soldering iron (at what appears to be the soldering pad) but the leads aren't budging. Has anyone encountered this problem?
They use higher temperature solder on those. I clean the solder joint throughly and then I turn up the soldering iron to 650F and put a spot of solder on the tip to conduct heat to the joint. You can also cut the resistor free at the resistor body and clip some forceps on it to yank it out.
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership