This is a $70 "new" replacement smoke unit I just purchased direct from LionelSupport.com. 🫤
Disappointing, to say the least.
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$70 doesn't buy what it used to. Have you contacted Lionel?
Just took it out of the plastic bag. I'm going to send them an email.
@J.Dooley posted:This is a $70 "new" replacement smoke unit I just purchased direct from LionelSupport.com. 🫤
Disappointing, to say the least.
Perhaps it was from one of the factory sample units. Was it the last one they had?
@Sean's Train Depot posted:Perhaps it was from one of the factory sample units. Was it the last one they had?
I just put 50 in my cart and it was ready to let me check out, so I'm guessing there are plenty in stock. 😂 Clearly, it's been powered on, probably for a good bit of time. It came in the little plastic bag just like everything else from the Lionel Parts Store, so no idea.
It's not at all uncommon to get used parts from Lionel. Most of the parts come from teardowns of returned or damaged locomotives. I have a second RCMC that I'm going to return again, the original and this one both had HS compound on the bridge, so clearly they were used. The first one was really wonky in the motor drive, this replacement just zorches the smoke unit with double power all the time! It's binary, on or off, no smoke volume control from the CAB2. I must admit it was impressive, but since this is a diesel, I don't want quite that impressive.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:I must admit it was impressive, but since this is a diesel, I don't want quite that impressive.
I had that one Frisco Meteor where it was stuck at full power and "impressive" meant a slagged smoke unit casing in about 45 seconds. We need to make "I like my smoke impressive, but not THAT impressive" t-shirts.
I've seen several early Legacy steamers with the modular boards have a regulator failure and put 18 volts on the smoke unit. So, instead of around 5-7 watts for full smoke, they got 40 watts into the smoke unit. Obviously, this is only good for 20-30 seconds, but boy is it impressive! 
I only wish I'd have gotten a video of one of them.
I have a Legacy k4 that I’ve had all kinds of problems with. (See Pulling drivers on a Legacy K4) Had to order a new RCMC board for it. That fixed the running problems, but I got the runaway smoke on both the smoke and whistle steam. Ordered another RCMC board and motor drive, and sounds were screwed up. Put the old board back in and contacted Lionel about sending the “new” board back for exchange. Their reply was “take it to a service center”. So I’m stuck with another 200.00 bad board. This is my first Lionel locomotive, and I’m definitely NOT impressed!! No smoke, or whistle steam, but at least it runs.
Bob
I'm having @Brasseur Electric Train Repairs work on a diesel switcher for me to replace an RCMC board that popped a cap, and last I heard the first one they got sent as a replacement was bad as well. Seems like less a Lionel problem than a sourcing vendor issue, not sure it's possible for Lionel to test every component that comes in. Definitely a PITA though.
@J.Dooley posted:Just took it out of the plastic bag. I'm going to send them an email.
Good luck with that! I'm still waiting on them to answer me from a week ago.
It’s not the fact I got a bad board that bothers me. I work in a service industry, and sometimes you just get a defective part. It’s the fact they won’t replace the defective part and told me to go spend a bunch more money on their totally defective loco.
"This is my first Lionel locomotive, and I’m definitely NOT impressed."
If you buy something used, out of warranty, you cannot expect the manufacturer to support it the same way as a new product bought from a dealer. Is this the situation?
@gunrunnerjohn posted:I've seen several early Legacy steamers with the modular boards have a regulator failure and put 18 volts on the smoke unit. So, instead of around 5-7 watts for full smoke, they got 40 watts into the smoke unit. Obviously, this is only good for 20-30 seconds, but boy is it impressive!
Here's the "oh crap, that's not good" video, and me investigating and testing after partial disassembly. In the second video you can see the resistor get so hot the melted plastic on it starts bubbling and I quickly stopped recording to shut it down before it caught fire.
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Landsteiner, it’s a Legacy K4 from 2018 bought “new old stock”, so I knew I wasn’t going to get a warranty. I knew about the gearbox issues, but I have a lot of experience working on locomotives, so I purchased it prepared to do the repair. Turns out, not only did it have the well known gearbox problem, the bronze bearing on the right side was completely missing. Thanks to help from Gunrunnerjohn, and Pat@harmonyard, the driveline issue was fixed. However, during re-assembly, I noticed the smoke unit was slightly loose, so I tightened it, and put the loco back together. It ran great, with good sounds. Then I noticed the smoke stack pushed up a little bit, so I pushed it back down, which immediately shorted out the RCMC board. The stack was not properly turned to fit inside the smoke unit, and the person who assembled it just left the screws loose. When I tried to push it back down, it somehow shorted. I took it back apart and turned the base of the stack to fit inside the smoke unit and ordered a fresh RCMC. Everything runs and sounds great, except for the runaway smoke. I willingly paid for everything up to that point. I ordered ANOTHER RCMC board to try to get the smoke under control, and that board was DOA. That’s when I contacted Lionel about getting that board exchanged for a (hopefully) good board, and instead of replacing it, was told to take it to a service center.
Bob
I’ve wondered if the thermistors could be blown, but don’t know what values to look for, or the proper way to check them.
Bob
The thermistors when they're cold will measure around 65K ohms, give or take a few K-ohms. If you hit them with a heat gun, they'll quickly go down to a few K-ohms, in the 4K to 6K range.
@J.Dooley posted:Here's the "oh crap, that's not good" video, and me investigating and testing after partial disassembly. In the second video you can see the resistor get so hot the melted plastic on it starts bubbling and I quickly stopped recording to shut it down before it caught fire.
Did you replace the RCMC on this locomotive or have Lionel reprogram it? This run of ATSF 3751 class Northerns (from the 2019 V2 catalog) had the RCMCs incorrectly programmed, so they will melt every smoke unit you put in the locomotive unless you replace the RCMC or get it reprogrammed.
Thanks John, I’ll check it out. If they’re bad, where would I find replacements, or should I just order a couple complete smoke units?
@Lou1985 posted:Did you replace the RCMC on this locomotive or have Lionel reprogram it? This run of ATSF 3751 class Northerns (from the 2019 V2 catalog) had the RCMCs incorrectly programmed, so they will melt every smoke unit you put in the locomotive unless you replace the RCMC or get it reprogrammed.
That's a good question. I sent it back to Trainz, where I got it, let me see if I can find the work order they sent me.
Okay, here's what they said:
The initial inspection is able to validate the loco did not run; further troubleshooting identified the RCMC driver board had failed on the Lionel test fixture. The whistle smoke unit was also missing the brass snorkel sleeve. Allocate and install replacement RCMC driver board, service smoke units, replace batting, allocate and repair snorkel on the whistle unit.
So, I'm guessing they just replaced the RCMC. How does one go about re-programming? Is that something that can even be done outside of Lionel?
If Trainz replaced the RCMC with one they ordered from Lionel it will have the corrected programming.
I suppose it's also a possibility that they used one out of their own stock. Either way, I guess a thorough testing would tell me if it's still an issue. I ran it for a bit once I got it back, but I can go under the hood and see what's going on.
Thank you for the head's up!
@J.Dooley posted:Here's the "oh crap, that's not good" video, and me investigating and testing after partial disassembly. In the second video you can see the resistor get so hot the melted plastic on it starts bubbling and I quickly stopped recording to shut it down before it caught fire.
I would hasten to add, running the smoke resistor with no air flowing over it will cause it to overheat in any case. The airflow is key to maintaining the proper operation.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:I would hasten to add, running the smoke resistor with no air flowing over it will cause it to overheat in any case. The airflow is key to maintaining the proper operation.
Meaning that the fan impeller is not just pushing smoke but creating the airflow the resistor needs as well? That makes sense.
@J.Dooley posted:Meaning that the fan impeller is not just pushing smoke but creating the airflow the resistor needs as well? That makes sense.
Correct, the air flowing over the resistor helps keep it cool, as well as the smoke fluid vaporizing. The evaporation of the fluid off the resistor in the airflow is part of the cooling. This is not unlike a fan on a processor heatsink, the airflow is essential to keeping things cool.
