3 cab blinks and resets

There is really no three reset limitation.  When you power down, you get three more resets.  That can go on forever.

 

Replacing the fan motor is the next logical step.

Aha - and phew - that's good to know. Thanks (again) GRJ.

changing the engine id has no effect on the smoke unit.

 

most engines are hard wired as 99.

I had tried the compressed air trick with no results.  I ended up opening the engine and disconnected the fan motor wire and buzzed it a few times with a 9V battery.  It works fine now.   This is the second time I have had to do this.  I plan to pick up a new fan motor and replace it next time.

Bob

The motor is certainly on it's way out.

Having to replace 2 fan motors in 2 different engines myself I'd say it's time for a new one.

GRJ is exactly right here on the 3 blinks and resets. He's also right on with the smoke fan motor which solved my problem.

 

My fan motor was working just fine, but I was getting the 3 blinks first time I put it on the tracks (it was a brand new engine). I had an MTH smoke fan motor that looked identical so I installed it. Problem solved for a few bucks with no return trip to Concord, N.C. Repair was way less than shipping would have been so I saved some money too. Only took a few minutes to do the replacement.

Thanks all for the advice on this problem.

 

I have spare smoke unit fan motors but they are all Lionel and date from before Lionel got in what is supposed to be a more reliable batch of these parts earlier this year. So I have taken this loco apart and given the motor a shot of 9V from a battery and some light oil on the base of the driveshaft and its bushing - I followed Eric Siegel's video tutorial on fixing noisy Lionel fan motors. It's a fiddly job but not that complicated.

 

This has restored normal operation and I'll see how long it lasts. I'm not optimistic but it will do until I can get either MTH motors or some new ones from Lionel.

 

I can confirm that before I did this the motor would either spin briefly on startup before the 3 blinks started or not spin at all followed by the blinks. Interestingly applying battery power to the motor also caused the marker lights to illuminate. (The motor wires are soldered to the top of the smoke unit and disconnecting them was not an option.)

I may have gotten lucky on mine with the MTH motor? I am not sure all MTH smoke fan motors would fit properly in the Lionel engines, but in my case they appeared to be identical and it worked. Still working too.

There are Lionel locomotives where you can't fit the MTH motor.

 

Hancock 52, I have the same issue with my Centipede, in addition to the noisy fans. I just noticed some time ago you described a fix for your noisy centipede fans.

Does the fix still work?

And, were you able to remove the fan assembly from the top of the locomotive or did you have to remove the shell? 

You will certainly have to remote the shell to do anything but perhaps blow air down the smoke outlet.

 

As GRJ has said, you have to take the body shell off to get at the roof fan assembly, which can only be take out from below.

 

My fix (adjusting the way that the fan motor connects to the rest of the assembly) worked to start with but after some run time and also transporting the engines around the noise started up again although not as bad as it was straight out of the box. I readjusted the motor connection and that got rid of the noise. Bear in mind that when you do this the assembly has to be tested top side up, namely the way it will fit back into the shell, because of the way that multiple gears fit into the sleeve that contains them.

 

My engines do not have a great deal  of run time and I am thinking that the gears in the assembly, which are plastic, not metal, and not helix cut may need time to wear in somewhat.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone for your helpful responses (and to Hancock52 for responding to my other post also). I hope the newest batch of fan motors will fix the frequent failures of these fan motors.