Good evening!!
I have a ZW that needed a whistle return spring. I ended up purchasing the removable rivet assembly in order to correctly install the spring. After re-assembly, the whistle wouldn't really operate properly. The tender would just click and then sort of hum. The left side is fine. I had some new diodes on hand and replaced both sides. The right side worked right away - good... well, no so much.. I put the cover back on, and tried again, and it just clicks. Took it back apart - I notice a little bit of arcing when the whistle button is pushed forward... again, the other size of the ZW is fine, even better now with the diode upgrade. I walked away for an hour.. plugged it back in -- and wow.. whistle on the right side (the side in question) is working great!! I put the cover back on, no whistle on that side.. what the heck now? I took it back apart, took the whistle switch back apart, sanded the contacts to remove dirt and bent the switch contacts in a little to make a stronger contact on the board side. Re-assembled.. whistle is great, and loud. Put the cover back on.. no whistle... I have no idea what's going on.. I'm willing to bet when I try it tomorrow, it will work, and for one time... All of the wiring looks like it's in good shape, with good solder. I'm certain the metal contactor on the switch is in the correct direction - anyone have any ideas or thoughts? I did see an article that said the whistle may not work if there isn't enough load.. my bench has a 3' track and I'm using a standard whistle tender.. the left size of the ZW has worked fine for each test, so I don't think it's that. Thanks!!
