I have a Lionel reproduction of the 1946 #38 Water Tower, item number 6-14086, from 2000. Recently, for whatever reason, the tower stopped pumping the water into its reservoir. The spout comes down, but the motor doesn't respond. I opened it up to find an electronic board that powers both actions, but can't seem to find anything that looks wrong. Has anyone else encountered this issue?
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Possibly water from the pump leaked back into the motor along the shaft. Usually repairable but I believe Lionel has parts if you need them. Good luck.
I should have added that the coloring agent may have built up on the pump shaft resulting on it being too stiff for the motor to turn.
I'll keep these things in mind, Sal. Thanks. 
Its been my experience that the blue dye fowls the pump. Once cleaned it should work. I no longer use the dye and my water tower has worked flawlessly for over a year.
-Pete
Lionel sells the whole pump as an assembly, and replacing it is not a big deal.
If they don't have one, message me, as I have a new one from them that I bought as a spare (or I'm selling my tower, a 6-24224, if you want to go that route).
I also had a similar problem with the remake version from 2000. I just disassembled the unit and took the pump apart. Even though I have been using distilled water, there was a lot of brown residue in the pump cavity and on the impellers. I also noticed a lot of residue on the pump motor shaft. I removed and cleaned all of the parts. I hooked a couple of leads from a transformer to the motor leads and I noticed that the motor was slow and sluggish. It even tripped the circuit breaker on the transformer. I cleaned the motor shaft even more and I added some oil to both shaft extensions of the motor. I turned the shaft by hand until the motor was turning a little more freely. Now the tower spout and pump work like brand new.
The water colorant is for the birds. Leave the water as clean as possible and use your imagination.
Bought a "parts only", brand spanking new 38 tower remake for $30 on the 'Bay...same problems as described above. Followed the ClutchGuy's advice, and now I have a brand spanking new, fully operational 38 tower remake.
There's no place better than the Forum to get good advice! (now, back to the cranky Lionel Reactor arm repair...)
John
The blue dye contains sugar that crystallizes. A cup of warm water will dissolve the sugar and rinse out.
Just found this thread. I have a similar problem with my tower but don't know how to get to the guts of it to see if I can fix. Is there some screw or such that I'm missing to take it apart?
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