234W Tender Whistle Runs and Runs

Make sure the whistle relay contacts are not touching with no power applied to the relay. If they are slightly touching, enough power may be getting to the whistle motor to start it turning.

Larry

What @TrainLarry said. I think the relay is making contact before you would like it to. Can you take the shell off and look inside?

Thanks for the responses.  I will investigate further.  I am also noticing that there is no lubricating well or wick.  I imagine they were lost.

It appears that the whistle is incorrectly wired. The motor should be continuously connected to center rail power at one brush.  When the whistle relay contact closes this should ground the field connection. In your picture it appears as there is no wire going to the whistle relay contact and the field wire that should be there is connected to a ground point on the other side of the relay.  This wiring arrangement would result in the whistle motor running continuously. In your picture the field wire with the sleeving on it needs to move from the right side to the brass tab on the lift side of the relay. This is right next to the wire with the short piece is shrink sleeving on it, which is center rail power to the whistle relay coil.

Thanks, David.  Here are additional pics.  Does the wiring still appear to be incorrect?

Yes, the field wire is bypassing the whistle relay contact and going straight to ground. In your bottom picture on the left side of the relay there are three insulated strips sandwiching two brass strips. The outer brass strip has center rail power at the top and is connected to the whistle relay coil at the bottom.  The inner one is the fixed contact for the whistle relay.  That fixed contact should be connected to the whistle motor field. The contact has solder on it, but no wire. The wire that should be on it is connected to the relay armature bracket on the other side of the relay.  Connected as it is it bypasses the whistle relay contact and will blow the whistle continuously.  

Aside from just messing up, what would compel someone to change the wire?  The lug on the other side even has residual solder on it.

I assume that it was just a mistake during reassembly. It appears to have been all apart for some purpose in the past.

For anyone who stumbles on this thread with a similar issue, here is the correct wiring detail.

Jjm, that is a very interesting illustration.  Did you find it somewhere or did you produce it?  If you made it can you tell us more about how it is done. Thanks.

Lionel Service Manual.

Jon

Same picture on page 647 of Greenberg's Repair and Operating Manual bought many years back from Berwyns Toy Trains.

Someone had posted the pic on another forum so I copied it, but it is from the Lionel service manual and that same pic is also in the Greenberg book.  I have a copy of the Greenberg book.  It does not cover everything that you might need to repair or service, but it is pretty useful!

And moving the wire did the trick!

Happy for you that you fixed the tender and in time for Christmas there are some wonderful folks on the forum.

Hello does anyone know the part number for the rear truck on a 234W tender? I have one with the entire coupler is broken off. I assume I have to replace the whole truck. I tried searching for Lionel AAR plastic truck but can't find one.

The complete AAR truck with operating coupler, grounding washer (9T-16), truck mounting stud (485-16) and (581-9) ground strap is 581-25. You can probably reuse the (581-10) roller insert, if equipped. The basic truck is 566-1 or 566-50, depending upon year.