Service K-Line Plymouth Switcher

Hello,
There are a few angled grab irons that will need to be pulled out at one end.  The shell is in two pieces and the hood comes out before the cab.  In order to get the shell completely off, you will also need to remove the screws for the smoke unit on/off switch and the reverse on/ off switch.  Once that is done, carefully move the wires to give you enough room to unplug their connections.  There is not a lot of give in there, but you can safely take it apart.

If you go to the thread "do you modify your engines" you will see a photo I posted of mine completely disassembled.  That may help you.

BTW those grab irons pull straight out...they are not glued.  You may also need to cut the bell string and add a new one.

 

Give me a minute and I'll post of few photos that may help.

On the left side of this photo you can see that the front of the hood has two grab irons hanging.  They were removed from the frame and that freed the hood for removal.  Also note that the hood has a lip that goes slightly under the cab.  The cab will be snug, but it lifts straight up.

 

 

Removing the cab too will give you better access to unplug from the board...

 

 

Completely disassembled...

 

Grampy,

From what I am reading it sounds like you have the smoke unit already off the frame and are trying to pull the top off. You say you have the screws that hold the metal upper cover out and it will not lift off. Not un-common they stick. I have had to pry them off. Is your heat element bad or the fan not spinning? I have had two that have burnt up the voltage requlators and that is why the fan would stop working.

Success

6 Screws Only.

Slide grab rails away from cab as the hood and cab seperate.

 

I see the VR (LM78L05ACZ - NatSemiCon) and forget how to test. My Electronics courses were 30+ years ago. I manage tasks/people now, not repair boards.

 

I did find the following helpful:

http://www.chipdocs.com/manufacturers/NSC.html?okwd=LM78&partid=775316

http://www.datasheetarchive.co...05ACZ-datasheet.html

 

Next trip to the Shack and break out the old iron...

 

Only semi-related, but where would be a good place to hook up a tether between doubleheaded Plymouths? 

 

I'm aiming to re-do my "30-Car Rampage" at the NJ Hirailers, and there were a couple of switches that stalled the units the first time I tried it. I think simply tying the roller pickups together should help the pair across the gaps.

 

I don't plan to make it a permanent mod, just have a wire or two and a small plug between the units.

 

---PCJ

This is one of the engines that saw production under the brief "K-Line by Lionel" banner, and thus Lionel did provide service to these units.

 

You may want to reach out to them if you need help on this.

 

Here is the manual that Lionel produced.

 

Grampy

 I have had 2 smoke units and they have burnt out the 5 volt regulator twice on each. A friend of mine from the CTT forum has replaced the stock regulator with a better one and soulved the problem. It seems the regulator that they come with can't take the heat of the unit.

This is a timely thread for me.  I am about ready to tear into my Kline Plymouth Switcher also.

Thanks Keith for the pictures.

KRM, any further info on the "better" regulator?

Just an addendum: Those switch screws thread into nuts inside the body shell. A couple of them got away inside the innards, and it took a few minutes to fish them out and re-install them (involving a rare-earth magnet and two screwdrivers). They don't seem to have anything to do with the shell attachment, but the shell itself will take a bit of insistent back-and-forth rocking to loosen it from the frame once the six body screws are out.

 

Looking for a place to splice a tether seems like it boils down to tapping the roller-pickup leads, but getting that wire outside the shell is a whole new challenge--if that shell fit any tighter together it would be waterproof

 

---PCJ

I was hoping to avoid that step while I had mine apart...till the thread came loose from the bell. While contemplating how I was going to glue it back on, it occurred to me to take a closer look at the tip of the thread, since it didn't look like it had broken off of anything:

Well, it seems there is a little collar on the end of the thread. With a little plier-fu, it should go back on the way it came off.

And now re-attached. Maybe not the exact original configuration but that should just require sliding the collar down to the horizontal end of the crank.

 

Edit: Nope, this is how it's attached out-of-box.

---PCJ

I performed the surgery on the Plymouth switcher today and replaced the "smoke PC board".  Success!

Thanks to all who contributed to this thread.  The OGR Forum is truly the place for information and help.

Thanks again.