Blinking cab light on lionel Shay

Page 31 of the manual describes the reset for the issue you are having.  My guess is it's 3 blinks. I don't think this has an Aux or secondary smoke unit.

Page 27 describes a factory reset to restore features. Basically setting the ID again. 

If the reset does not work, then the 3 cab blinks may be indicating a fan motor issue.

Dave

Martye , Thanks for the link, i  printed out the information,i went down to the layout & tried reseting the id again ,put the engine back to run & powered up the track ,it started smoking again ,but after going about 2 feet it stopped smoking again ,& the cab light continues to blink ,do i need to open this engine up to check the fan motor ?, the resister did heat up at first so i don't know if it's a resister problem ,i guess the resister could have shut down again so quick ,i don't know that much about it.

The fan motor could have an issue or the fan impeller might be slightly rubbing something. Some folks have had luck blowing some canned air down the stack to help. Otherwise you may have to replace the motor. 

 I will try blowing air down the stack ,if this doesn't work i will just have to open it up & see if i can figure out what the problem is ,today has been a day of smoke unit problems, one of my lionel diesels was smoking  just fine ,then the engine stopped smoking  with just a trickle of smoke coming out ,opened it up put it on the track to test it,everything OK, fan works & smoking just fine, then i went to run another diesel & it wouldn't smoke either, so i opened this one up ,put it on the track to test it, powered up ,no smoke,no fan spinning either,at this point i don't know what else to do, so i started to put it back together & ask for help on the forum,all of a sudden i see a wire just hanging there not attached to anything ,so i see a small harness near where this wire was with only one other wire in it ,so i just took a guess & pushed the wire in one of the open slots,put engine on track to test it powered up & bingo ,engine smoking up a storm ,we will see what happens when i open up the shay ,after this i am not running any more engines today ,I don't want to have to to fix another smoke unit !!!!!!!

Most likely is that smoke fluid has got into the fan motor causing it to fail. My Shay and on of my ES44AC's had the happen. To fix it I removed the motor, sprayed it with brake cleaner and then used my compressor to blow the cleaner out of the motor. Worked like a charm. 

I had the engine apart & when i looked at where the fan motor was it looked to be more than i could handle with my limited knowledge ,i have only changed 1 fan motor & it was in a diesel ,& i was only able to do that one  with a lot of help from GUNRUNNERJOHN ,& some other forum members ,so with this engine being a steam engine ,i didn't think i could do it ,i then decided to put the shell back on & have someone who knows what they are doing handle it. I then read mduppy 's response ,& he made it sound so easy i opened the engine up again & studied the fan motor more closely & i decided that i could do it,i did have a spare motor so i went ahead & changed the motor ,& now she smokes up a storm . I tested the old motor with a battery & it worked only  with a push from me & when it stopped i had to give it another push ,so i am going to trash it . My thanks to mdupp for giving me the confidence to do this repair ,it gave me a real good feeling knowing i did it myself.  Gerald  M.

Gerald Marafioti posted:

so i am going to trash it .

oh no that will make for some clutter or junk yard material scenery wise on your layout!

StPaul ,I never thought of that you just gave that motor a new life ,i will save it for a junk pile ,thanks for the suggestion !!!!!!!