Are 671-225 or 2026-29 heaters interchangeable? Which would work better in this loco operating at 11 volts? Also, the spring on top of the piston, narrow end or wide end towards piston? Please advise. Thanks to all.
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Narrow end up on the spring. Are you using pellets or liquid?
If you can find it (Try The Train Tender) I would use 2026-29 for pellets. None are as good as the original. That came as an entire smoke unit enclosure (2026-8).
John
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Thank you. Will try the 2026-29 heater. Using recent production pellets. John
@H1C2839 posted:Thank you. Will try the 2026-29 heater. Using recent production pellets. John
That's the right one then.
John
The difference between the two smoke units is the length of the wire. The problem you may run into is that the reproduction smoke unit heater resistance is about 1/3 higher than the originals. Because of this it runs cooler and produces less smoke.
Thank you for your response. I understand the the new heater should be about 18 ohms cold resistance. Apparently the originals the originals were then about 13-14 ohms cold resistance. I wonder if taking 1 turn off a new heater would get better results. Something to try over the winter. Thanks for the information. John
Several people have recommended unwinding two turns to get the heat up. The problem with that is reattaching the nichrome wire back to the eyelet. It will not solder, so some kind of mechanical connection is required. The ceramic support is brittle, so unbending a little of the eyelet flange, then recrimping it on the heater wire may be problematic.
The easy way to remove 2 turns of wire is break off on the ground strap end , unwind the 2 turns and wrap around strap. Easy and no soldering involved.
