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Just picked up a "new" Lionel UP GP-30 6-28860.  It is not smoking, no fan or heat.

I applied 18 VAC directly to the smoke unit J1 connector and the fan spins and the heating element gets hot.  I am not getting AC voltage to the J1 connector.  I have reset the locomotive.  I am seeing about 1 VAC as input to the smoke unit.

I suspect it is a problem with the AC Regulator.  How can I confirm whether it is bad or it's not getting good serial information from the motherboard to turn on?

Last edited by Steims
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I own a Lionel TMCC J class #611 (6-38095) and I've got a similar problem. The fan motor is working but the heating element is not. The original element died and needed to be replaced. I replaced the heating element, added fresh bating with fluid, and replaced the fan motor. All screws and nuts have been tightened. I looked at the top of the smoke unit board and none of the traces are nicked or damaged. The smoke on/off switch under the engine is set to on and when the engine is running I can hear the fan motor going but the element doesn't get hot.  Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you for the responses and yes I did use an 8 ohm resistor to replace the old burned out one. I do have one question about wiring the regulator. The original regulator has 4 wires (brown, black, red and black). while the new regulator has 5 (brown, black, red, and two more black wires). Do two of the black wires get connected together or is there another way to wire the new regulator? 

 

Following up on this discussion I'm happy to say the repair was a success and it was indeed the AC regulator the gave out.  Thanks again everyone for all your help. 

When you do the repair, the easiest way to do it is to cut the new regulator wires to about 2" and just splice into the existing four wires.  When you cut the old regulator out, leave yourself plenty of length for the splice.  Trying to follow the wires to the final connections is doing it the hard way.

@Steims posted:

The 2 black wires are electrically connected on the board.  So you can either simply cut one or combine them together and connect to the appropriate wire on the chassis.   

 

 

Peter, as Rick points out, the voltage regulator is by far the top suspect.  I hope you used an 8 ohm resistor in that one, Lionel recommended replacing the 6 ohm one years ago, they were eating regulators.  I keep a stock of regulators .

Do you have a communication or link to that Lionel recommendation?  I think I have recently replaced a 6 ohm for a 6 ohm on another locomotive.   Interested if that was an across the board replacement recommendation or only on certain models/years.  

I don't have it right now, but it was universal recommendation.  The 6 ohm was just too much of a load and was cooking the regulators.  That's a step I do to anything that comes through with a 6 ohm resistor.  Note that on Legacy, they finally started bolting the triac to the frame to try to keep it from cooking.  They don't cook as often, but the Legacy ones still fail.

Happy New Year.  Sorry for rejuvenating an old thread but it was the closest i could find to the issue i am having.

I have a Pennsy M-1A 6-38056 that won't smoke.  The board was looked quite burnt and the sleeve was burned to the resistor.  When i removed the board the capacitor fell off and one end of the resistor was loose - the board got so hot that it melted the solder.  I replaced the board and still no smoke.

digging a little deeper i found the pictured component that looks like it has gotten very hot.  I'm guessing this is the voltage regulator discussed above.  from Lionel's support page i assume this is AC Reg Board cs-691ACRGE01-p which is marked as obsolete and unavailable.

InkedIMG_3099

Is this picture the voltage regulator that is being discussed above and if so, is there a new part number or an acceptable replacement part?

Thank You

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  • InkedIMG_3099
Last edited by bwright

The Smoke regulator is now an obsolete part. Some of us have developed a work around for this very problem,…..however, usually the case of anemic smoke, or erratic smoke operation. You can bypass the regulator, and install a TMCC value resistor in the 20-27 ohm range. This does require some planning, and isolation of the smoke resistor from the PCB. The regulator is left in place,…..we just leave it sit there, allowing it to believe it’s doing a wonderful job,…..you have to isolate the traces of the smoke element resistor, and wire one side to ground, the other side back straight to the feature out on the radio board. First, you need to verify if your fan still spins like it supposed to, and your radio board doesn’t have a cooked smoke ( feature ) output. If those two items work, you can proceed with a bypass. If not, another solution would be GRJ’s super chuffer and chuff generator. You can rebuild that smoke unit, again, isolating a few items to work with John’s stuff….so there are a couple options for repair….

Pat

Thank you Pat.  I would be in way over my head attempting the work around you suggesting. I guess for now I'll let all the other engines fill the room with smoke and pretend one is smoking too.  If i just turn the smoke switch to off i can leave everything as is and it won't cause any more issues or should i remove the voltage regulator and insulate all the wires going to it?

Thank you.

Brad

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