Problem with PW 675 Please help

You are on the right track. I assume you have already checked that the light bulb is good and is screwed in tight. Set the engine on the track with the boiler off the engine and power up the track with the engine in neutral. Wiggle the wire to the light and watch for intermittent light operation. The wire could have an internal break. You can jumper around the wire to check the integrity of the wire.

Earl

Check the pickup, insulator etc. The rollers are clean. How's your track? Put a jumper directly on the roller and the body to test. Good luck

Thanks Earl will try that tomorrow, maybe I should just rewire everything?

For a 675, the bulb gets it return path to ground via the boiler front. Taking of the shell isn't going to solve this.

If the engine runs fine then the problem is not with pickup collector or e-unit.

Check the wire from the e-unit to the smoke and bulb. Could have been pinched installing shell and the insulation is covering the break in the wire.

Smoke unit should be more reliable with power than the bulb. You may have to adjust the bracket that holds the bulb in place. G

quote:

Check the wire from the e-unit to the smoke and bulb. Could have been pinched installing shell and the insulation is covering the break in the wire.

Or the break in the insulation. I had exactly the same problem with my own 675 last year. It's easy for those wires to get pinched, and when they do, the broken place in the insulation may not be easy to see. You've got to use great care when putting the boiler back on a 675.

I would completely rewire, all wires replaced, not just a few,clean all grounds.


Rod

Pinching the wire to the light and smoke unit is very common with the 675. Make sure you bring that wire around to the side of the smoke unit when putting the shell back on. I would just re-wire everything.
Rob

If the light is mounted in the boiler rather than the chassis, you can still do the check for broken wires with the boiler off. Just use a jumper wire with alligator clips on both ends. Attach one end of the wire to a ground spot on the boiler and attach the other wire to either a ground spot on the chassis or even easier, attach the end to an outside rail on the track.

I don't think his problem is a short because he only reports a problem with the light and smoke unit. A short would effect the entire loco.

Earl

I redid the connections on the light and smoke unit and the smoke unit is working great and is really cranking out smoke. However the light is still a problem. When I have the bulb in the socket the engine will not run. When I take the bulb out of the socket and put the boiler front back on it runs fine. I put electrical tape where I thought it might be shorting out but it doesn't seem to help. What am I missing or doing wrong?
Bruce