I have a Williams great Northern 2-8-4 Berkshire steam engine and I recently put in some mega steam smoke fluid. I've used it before and I never had a problem. As of an hour or so a go when I put in about 12 drops the unit stopped smoking. What can I do to correct this? Thanks.
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A guy who does repairs said to add a little WD40.
Send it back to WBB!!!
Fred
Tear it down and re do the smoke unit.
One of the Lionel technicians told me to place my locomotive up-side-down, on blocks, on an absorbent material and being careful of any attached detail parts and to make sure the locomotive does NOT fall over and off of the blocks.
This way the smoke liquid can drain out of the smoke stack.
I had one other problem in that when I foolishly added too much smoke fluid, which had overflowed the smoke unit and drenched the innards of the locomotive and so I had to wait until all, or mostly all of the smoke fluid drained out, or take off the body and wipe off the excess smoke fluid, before using the locomotive.
Fortunately, the smoke fluid, which has an oily consistency, did not cause an electrical short.
I do NOT know, if the smoke fluid liquid has an electrical conduction quality and/or if it is flammable? I forgot to ask and that information was not divulged, to me.
Someone else, on this forum may explain the properties of smoke fluid?!
Ralph
My experience with Seuthe smoke units is that you should only use a few drops at a time. Twelve drops are way too many. I learned that the hard way. I hope your engine recovers. It is a great little engine.
I can recommend a great fan driven smoke unit to replace that anemic smoker. 
It's easy to overfill a Seuthe smoke unit. You need to leave about a third of the center post visible above the fluid level. When I overfill one, I just dip the corner of a rag or paper towel into the stack. That will wick enough fluid away to uncover the heating element and allow it to start smoking again. It might take a minute or two for it to heat up again.
Or you can turn the engine upside down, holding a rag over the stack. You probably don't want smoke fluid on the scenery or the track.
You need to drain the smoke unit by turning it upside down and letting drain out the fluid for about 15 minutes. After that put about 4 drops of smoke fluid back in and put it on the track and set the engine to neutral and turn your voltage up to almost full and let the smoke unit start to smoke again. No permanent damage done and you will have the unit working again.
Don't replace the smoke unit just because you over filled it, drain it and try again!
Lee Fritz
You guys are talking about two different types of smoke units. Most Williams use a Seuthe unit.
I wondered about how different when I saw this, never had one apart but Suethe kits apparently come with a syringe too. Here is an image I googled from a British train shop.
http://www.kato-unitrack.co.uk...oke-unit-9382-0.html
The Suethe units are very, very sensitive. We have several Williams locomotives on our test layout and we designed and chemically engineered our smoke fluid to be safe to use in all smoke units (including the Seuthe units) when used as advised by each manufacturer. Viscosity or thickness of the fluid is the key. We have experienced no problems at all when we remembered not to overfill these sensitive units. 4-6 drops is all we use per filling.
If you overfill, the tiny heating element will overheat and burn out. If you run the smoke unit without smoke fluid the unit will also burn out. Draining the unit as described earlier is the first best solution and will work most of the time. Eventually, like all smoke units...they will fail and have to be repaired or replaced. Hope this helps.
Mega-Steam
There was a previous thread in which someone confirmed that smoke fluid does NOT conduct electricity. But as regards non-Suethe fan-driven units, I think overfilling has an adverse effect on the fan motor and the impeller. I don't think it is flammable at the normal operating temps of Lionel/MTH heating elements; it should just vaporize.
Smoke fluid gums up the bearings of the smoke motors. Oiling them frequently gets them going, but sometimes you have to replace the motor.
The Mega-Steam Eliminator was successful in one of my Legacy U-Boats in quieting the motor, but the other one sounds like a replacement is coming soon, just haven't gotten around to taking it apart yet.
Hancock52,
Thank you for mentioning about smoke fluid, not conducting electricity.
I didn't know until now of your post.
Thank you,
Ralph
When they do work, they start to spit fluid all over the front of the engine. I have disconnected mine on my Williams J. One day I will look into adding a fan type unit.
I don't think WBB are that great a value as everyone thinks, for about a hundred more I could of had the MTH RK version with smoke sound and full remote control.
I watched the smoke 101 video on the Lionel site. Learned everything I did was wrong. A good video.
I have a 6- 38036 LIRR 2-8-0 Consolidation Engine which does not smoke. I think there is too much smoke fluid and/or the smoke unit is fried. Two questions. (1) Will turning the engine over to drain the fluid work even thought the fluid may be a few years old? (2) If I need to replace it, does someone know what unit it is and where to get one? Gunrunnerjohn mentioned he may know of a good one. Will it fit in other engines as well? Did Lionel standardize on something?
Thanks
That model has a mechanical smoke unit, and it's unlikely it needs to be replaced. I'd consider just a good cleaning to restore it. In the eventuality that you did want to replace it, it turns out that Lionel has parts for that model.
In that listing is the smoke unit, spring and piston, and even the smoke resistor.
This is what can happen if you overfill a Seuthe unit. This one actually works well when its not overfilled. The key is to only use Seuthe fluid and turn them off when not in use.
Pete
@Mega-Steam posted:The Suethe units are very, very sensitive. We have several Williams locomotives on our test layout and we designed and chemically engineered our smoke fluid to be safe to use in all smoke units (including the Seuthe units) when used as advised by each manufacturer. Viscosity or thickness of the fluid is the key. We have experienced no problems at all when we remembered not to overfill these sensitive units. 4-6 drops is all we use per filling.
If you overfill, the tiny heating element will overheat and burn out. If you run the smoke unit without smoke fluid the unit will also burn out. Draining the unit as described earlier is the first best solution and will work most of the time. Eventually, like all smoke units...they will fail and have to be repaired or replaced. Hope this helps.
Mega-Steam
The solution is to relocate the smoke unit on-off switch somewhere on the top or sides of the unit instead of the bottom so it is convenient to turn it off after the (three minute max) smoke stops. I haven't done it so I rarely use it. By the way - 6-7 drops of JT fluid gives about a minute and a half of smoke at best.
John
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