Mt primitive horn has failed in my 2033. These horn systems were notoriously unreliable over the years. Has any one tried installing a Wbb e-unit and horn into a 2033?
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Your horn can be most likely be repaired by a good Lionel service station. A number of things could be the problem, but most are a easy fix. The early Alco engines like yours, has a very loud horn when operating correctly.
Reproduction, original style horns are available too.
There would be no problem installing a Williams TrueBlast II in the tender of that unit.
youtube is a great resource for repairs of all kinds of things. This one shows repair to the postwar horn. I've used it on my own stock, and it's worked about 50% of the time.
Let us know which way you choose to go.
Tim
Let us know which way you choose to go.
Tim
quote:Originally posted by gunrunnerjohn:
There would be no problem installing a Williams TrueBlast II in the tender of that unit.
It is a Diesel
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH , is someone in the fog? It was stated asquote:Originally posted by GGG:quote:Originally posted by gunrunnerjohn:
There would be no problem installing a Williams TrueBlast II in the tender of that unit.
It is a Diesel
a 2033. Shouldn't you know what that number means before replying?
Oops!quote:2033
Not sure why there's any problem installing the electronic horn in that...
Actually I fixed it myself! I found the battery cover plate had an almost invisible layer of corrosion on it! I found this interesting since there was no battery in the locomotive. I clean ed the plate with alcohol and buzz it did!
great news Tom.
Funny I've torn those horns completely apart in the past and never thought to try the simplest fix, clean the tarnish off the battery contacts - doh! I'll be trying that on a few stubborn ones in the roster.
Tim
Funny I've torn those horns completely apart in the past and never thought to try the simplest fix, clean the tarnish off the battery contacts - doh! I'll be trying that on a few stubborn ones in the roster.
Tim
I had to jiggle around with the horn on my 2033 when I got it for Christmas from my spouse. All it needed was a good cleaning of the battery contacts and to have the adjustment screw on the back of the horn back off a little. Worked fine after doing that, and it still works great!
--Freddo
--Freddo
I still may pursue the possibility of replacing the horn with a "true-blast" system from WBB! Those original horns in those little ALCO's were pretty sad! Not being a true collector but an operator, I don't mind the alteration!
I found this old post from 2011 and have a question. I have very little experience working on trains but slowly getting better.
I have a 2023 diesel with a 2023-14 horn which doesn't work. I watched the video and performed the steps but no luck. I even made sure the ground and power were good by using another horn (repro) for testing.
So, I don't know the part name,,,but the copper wired coil unit inside the horn appears to be the problem. But, what could be broke? I really don't know how it works but it seems that it is just copper wire wound around the metal cylinder designed to create the magnetic field to pull down the metal strip .....
Even if this cannot be repaired, I would like to understand how the copper wired unit works and what might be the cause of it not working.
I appreciate your reply
Happy New Year
Ron
Originally Posted by Timothy Sprague:
youtube is a great resource for repairs of all kinds of things. This one shows repair to the postwar horn. I've used it on my own stock, and it's worked about 50% of the time.
Let us know which way you choose to go.
Tim
Let us know which way you choose to go.
Tim
I would add one thing. I would put a light film of motor oil on the contacts to prevent corrosion. This is all the contacts: the rim of the diaphragm, the rim of the horn body, the rim of the cover, and the center electrical contact.
There is a contact in there that is adjusted by the outside screw. The horn is really just a fancy buzzer, the magnet pulls the diaphragm down until the contact opens, then it drops back, the contact closes, the diaphragm is pulled again, etc. The adjustment screw sets how far the diaphragm moves, and thus the pitch of the horn.
Most problems I have encountered are caused by excessive handling and oxidation. The wire that comes out the back of the horn is very fragile. It doesn't take much bending for it to break off at the plastic bushing. Oxidation occurs at the contacts of the relay. The rear hinge area of the moving bottom plate and on the face of the contacts themselves.
After cleaning the oxidation points of the relay, a gentle working left to right of the set screw on the horn's back usually gets the thing going.
To all...
Thanks for your help.
I removed the cover and sanded (cleaned) the contacts for the vibrating arm and the top of the solenoid coil. The video that was posted on this string of discussions, showed that you can test if it works by touching a ground to the top of the vibrating arm and pushing it close to the solenoid coil...it will create a slight noise and pull the vibrating arm down to the solenoid coil. It works in the video but does not work for my horn. This seems to mean that the solenoid coil is bad. Is this possible? If it is bad, then the horn is gone...but I would like to understand how the coil could be bad. It looks intact..but the copper wire surrounding the solenoid is covered with paper...so hard to tell.
Does this make sense? I assume the horn is gone...but would like to understand how the coil can get damaged or not work.
Thanks again
Ron
The PW horns were the same as Delta bicycle horns. And there are people who restore PW bicycles.
See this example and the associated video link:
It's been a while since I had a horn apart. As I recall, either the end of the coil wire inside the horn or the joint where it is attached to it's contact can become severely corroded causing the horn to fail.
