Lionel 3520 Rotating Searchlight Car

Is the rubber finger washer there?

If it has the footed washer it should spin.  Mine spins well when not moving and with reasonably high voltage to the track.  When moving it does spin but very slowly. This seems to agree with most examples I have seen in YouTube videos. Once in a while I see a video of one spinning fast while moving and I have no idea how they make that happen.  The vibrator coil’s vibrations are barely perceptible to me.

They are very picky about what nippled rubber wash you use. I tried some repos that hardly moved anything. The best ones I've tried have three nibs.  They all seem to work as Obuckler said above. Helps to have a low geared engine and a long train so the light gets plenty of voltage.

My 3520 has a new "finger" washer...and the light comes on but no sign of vibration whatsoever.

Reproduction washers do not work well, Get a genuine from your local Lionel parts store, they are still available new. Then sprinkle a small dab of powered graphite and it will spin like crazy.

The coil may vibrate, if it is a little loose in the mount.  The coild doesn't need to vibrate.   The magnetic cycling causes the metal part of the light cover to pull down, the fingers push up.  120 times a second.  The angle of the fingers cause the spin.  If the fingers are old and hard, they don't spin well.   Some repro finger washers are not as soft as they should be.  Cutting 3 of the 6 fingers off helps in these cases.  Also the top plate of the coil the fingers run on needs to be smooth, no rough spots or cracks.

Those spinning fast while the train is moving may be with TMCC/Legacy/DCC contolled engines where track voltage is always 18v.

the finger washers I bought last month work fine on another such car....I bought some graphite and will give that a shot tomorrow...also have extra finger washers so will also trim one to reduce fingers and see what happens. Thank you gentlemen.

Thanks for posting about your troubles with the searchlight car.  That got me to get my Lionel 3520 rotating searchlight car off the train shelf and put her on the track and it worked fine after not being operated for several years.  I may just leave it on a dead end track and activate it when I want see it operate or show it off.

Charlie