I remember reading about Lionel had a batch of bad smoke generators for I believe one year of their steam engines and if the cab light blinked 3 times and if reset didn't work it had to go to Lionel for repair per the manual. Can some tell me the year that the problem smoke generators were installed. Also, if it was only the fan motor could I fix the problem without sending it out for repairs?
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Well it's not year specific and yes typically the fan replacement solves the issue. I've been hearing and experiencing the 3 blink issue less but it still exists. It can be caused by smoke fluid saturating the motor, bad motors, or if the impeller isn't seated correctly so you may have luck just opening it and cleaning or adjusting.
One of my steamers came with the 3 blinks a year or so ago, but I kept resetting it and it quit failing. Kind of wore in over 15 minutes or so.
The Lionel smoke fan motors today are not the problem they were 2-3 years ago.
The defective smoke fan epidemic started and peaked with the first legacy k4 and light mikados offered around 2011.
These two models had the Lions share of bad fan motors, but bad fan motors continued for a few years after.
Even the fan motors in my most recent legacy purchases are a bit noisy but they haven't failed.....yet.
Fwiw, the quietest most reliable smoke units are still the ones in my tmcc loos from the mid 2000's
The 4-8-4 Northerns had a bunch of the bad fan motors, I had a pretty steady stream of those coming in for smoke motors. I was putting MTH motors in them, never got one back.
My PRR U-Boats have fairly noisy fans, but they're still running. When they croak, I'll pop a new motor in.
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