Thanks for any help anyone can provide. I took the shell of of this locomotive to change the 9v battery and when I went to pit the shell back on the circuit board and its support broke off. The "support stand appears to be made of magnesium or aluminum (maybe, I am new to all of this).
Can the support legs be glued back on. what is the function of the small square plate that appeared to be glued to the support legs? Does this support function as a heat sink? Thanks again for any info.
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That looks like your smoke unit and it looks like it has Zinc Pest. I have not seen this on a smoke unit before, but I'm sure others here have. Anyway, I would say you need a new one.
There are some very knowledgeable folks here that do MTH repairs. They can probably tell you exactly what you need and the specific cause of failure.
I might have a PS1 smoke unit. If I dont, somebody else does.
Wow, thank you both for the quick replies! I have never tried to use the smoke unit on this set of engines. I should know more about them, I bought them around 1999 or so. They have pretty much sat in the box as I just never made time to develop my hobby.
If I am not using the smoke unit could I run this engine if I got the shell back on without doing major damage? I am trying to get this set running so my grandchildren can see it run in two weeks. I doubt my ASC here can get it back to me in time.
Thanks for the tip about someone on here might have a PS1 smoke unit. If either of you do have a replacement unit, please let me know how I could purchase and get it shipped to me.
Just unplug the connector going to the smoke unit, put some tape on it and reassemble your loco. It will be fine.
Thanks for the additional input. I think that is what i am going to try.
RTR12, you mentioned that you thought these were zinc posts. I had not considered zinc. But, I did go back and zoom on the broken ends of the posts and saw has degraded these posts have become. No wonder they broke!
This locomotive has been out of the box maybe 6 times in the years I have had it.
I am attaching a copy of the enlarged view in case anyone is interested. I truly appreciate the input. Thanks.
Dang, I just looked through my smoke unit parts box, I don’t have that exact casting, but I have this one, if Matt can’t put his hands on one....your more than welcome to the part I have....you’ll have to fashion some sorta bracket to reach wherever yours bolts to....but at least it’s worth a shot....Pat
First I agree with Royboy about just unplugging the smoke unit and leaving out. Should work fine w/o it.
Zink pest is caused by impurities in the casting materials mixed together to make the part. I am no expert on this but it has caused problems in die cast train parts for many years. Other items have had the problem as well.
Not sure exactly what is wrong with your smoke unit, but parts with zink pest will just crumble after a time as it appears your smoke unit is doing. There is no fix other than replacing the part.
Hope someone has a replacement for you or can direct you to one somewhere. Good luck!
Thank you RTR12. I tried to just insert the screws from under the locomotive into the remaining threads on the posts and they did just crumbling. The whole unit is crumbling.
I hate to show my ignorance of anything electronic (I guess it is too late for that), but I was trying to remove the smoke unit by unplugging it. I could not get the plug apart. I was afraid I was going to break it. Is there a special way to get the plug halves to release from each other or should I just use plain old muscle?
I will pursue getting a replacement smoke unit, but I believe the loco should run fine if I just take it out for now.
Thanks again for everyone's patience with me. I really do appreciate the help.
harmonyards posted:
Dang, I just looked through my smoke unit parts box, I don’t have that exact casting, but I have this one, if Matt can’t put his hands on one....your more than welcome to the part I have....you’ll have to fashion some sorta bracket to reach wherever yours bolts to....but at least it’s worth a shot....Pat
Looks like it might work. The legs look shorter so I think you are correct that I might have to fashion some sort of bracket to connect it. Thanks, I will email if I don't find a unit.
rtr12 posted:First I agree with Royboy about just unplugging the smoke unit and leaving out. Should work fine w/o it.
Zink pest is caused by impurities in the casting materials mixed together to make the part. I am no expert on this but it has caused problems in die cast train parts for many years. Other items have had the problem as well.
Not sure exactly what is wrong with your smoke unit, but parts with zink pest will just crumble after a time as it appears your smoke unit is doing. There is no fix other than replacing the part.
Hope someone has a replacement for you or can direct you to one somewhere. Good luck!
Thanks for the info! It has just about completely crumbled.
May I ask how to get the plug off from the wiring harness where it connects to the PCB? Do I need to press or pinch something? I have tried pulling it apart, but am afraid I am near breaking it. (see picture for the type of plug I am trying to unplug.
Lester posted:Looks like it might work. The legs look shorter so I think you are correct that I might have to fashion some sort of bracket to connect it. Thanks, I will email if I don't find a unit.
Ok, your more than welcome to it, I’ll probably never use it....email is in my profile......Pat
Lester posted:harmonyards posted:
Looks like it might work. The legs look shorter so I think you are correct that I might have to fashion some sort of bracket to connect it. Thanks, I will email if I don't find a unit.
Matt Makens posted:I might have a PS1 smoke unit. If I dont, somebody else does.
If you find you have one, please let me know. I am going to need to get one from somewhere. As I have continued to work with it this evening, it the legs and box are just crumbling apart. Thanks.
You need the MTH AA-2100000 diesel smoke uint bowl. The same diecast parts are used on the PS2 & PS3 smoke units. You can just take the diecast parts from that unit and replace the ones on your smoke unit.
gunrunnerjohn posted:You need the MTH AA-2100000 diesel smoke uint bowl. The same diecast parts are used on the PS2 & PS3 smoke units. You can just take the diecast parts from that unit and replace the ones on your smoke unit.
Thank you for taking the time and providing the part number. Since the casting mostly crumbled last night, I unplugged the smoke unit and the locomotive seems to run fine. I will order the new part. Thanks again.
That's the part number for the whole smoke unit, but there is no separate listing for the diecast parts. FWIW, I had the exact same situation once, and I just disassembled a PS/2 unit and used those parts.
I see above that you got the smoke unit unplugged, that's good news.
GRJ is one of the folks I was hoping would see your thread and he has! He has great info and has worked on many trains. He also offers a LOT of help for all of us around here!
MTH does have some part numbers assigned for the bodies only. Not sure they have diesel long post though. Easy fix with a part, and this does happen to some units. G
George, it's finding what those part numbers are, that's the challenge. 
I have no idea how to get part numbers for the individual diecast smoke unit parts, I've never seen them broken out. I can get a PCB, just not the bottom parts.
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