Steam clean wheel grind accessory service

The smoke output of the steam section had dropped off. I could barely see any steam coming out. So I decided to do some maintenance. To get to the smoke unit you have to take it completely apart. The screws which hold the tank body are buried. This comes apart fairly easily. The only gotcha is the wires. The wires for the smoke unit and fan are soldered onto the board. I removed the wires to make this easier. Once fully apart, I found a very compact smoke unit. It's powered with a 27ohm resistor. It's old school Lionel with a sleeve over the resistor. That was the only wicking in the bowl! It was charred and the source of low smoke. After removing the sleeve, I put about 6.5 inches of rope wicking in the bowl. I then used a small screwdriver to borrow a hole in the wicking so the resistor could slide in. The unit now has a proper amount of wicking to hold the fluid. Reassembled the unit and its smoking better than ever.