fixed it

Did not know this was a BB post until I read it.  Just sayin.

Color me dumb, but what does BB stand for?

quote:

Color me dumb, but what does BB stand for?

 

Around these parts it stands for: Big Butt

Big Boy

On this forum, it doesn't get any better than this; folks telling their fixes.

My BB blowdown stopped working too.

It will pour smoke out the fill hole when pressing the button but not the blowdown holes.

I have been gently puffing on the hole with blowdown off - nada.

So, you put fluid in it, held down the blowdown button, then blew the snot out of it?

RickM46

That smoke unit isn't so large as to accept a ton of smoke fluid, so any excess will end up inside the locomotive.  I'd exercise caution pumping too much fluid in there.

 

 

 

 

RickM46, yes after filling blow down with smoke fluid toss air puff to the side literally hold blow down button down and take a deep breath and put lips over that hole and blow as hard as you can I am thinking possibly a foreign piece or a really stubborn meniscus somewhere became dislodged.

 

it has worked flawlessly since.

gunrunnerjohn,  I understand what your saying about overfilling but for mine that quantity worked along with the very forceful bag o hot air I sent into that unit.

 

now seeing you have seen the outside chamber size of blow down smoke unit is it possible mine was so dry that it took that 80 drops to get things in a happy place?

 

main smoke stack output at medium setting with 20 drops is reduced to half output going only 3 laps which equals 60 feet of track and after 6 laps requires another 15 drops of smoke fluid.

this is with efx set at maximum and train brake at more than 2/3rds of maximum setting.

 

if you haven't tried that please do if all here think the whistle is awesome you haven't heard anything yet!

 

so far I have refilled blow down once since 9am this morning.

 

thanks again gunrunner for the heads up on overfilling blow down unit.

 

I've run mine probably 10 minutes with high smoke before it dropped off enough for me to refill it.  When I started dry, I did put about 30-40 drops in, basically, 2/3 of the JT's MegaSteam dropper.  That was for each main stack, about half a dropper in the whistle, and half in the blowdown.

gunrunnerjohn,  have you tried it at full EFX and 2/3 rds train brake setting at about 20th speed step?

 

my wife loves that sound at that setting not to mention she loves steam engines!

I've run the train brake down to right before stopped and cranked the throttle up full, gets a lot of smoke and sound, great engine!

 

So, when the loco is new and dry, you ought to go heavy on the first dose of fluid - per grj, 2/3 of a MegaSteam dropper in the stacks, 1/2 a dropper each in the whistle and blow down.  Seems logical since the fiberglass wad will need to be soaked.

 

This is tremendous info for a new and dry loco.

 

I have been very conservative in adding fluid - doing the Lionel pipette and only putting a line's worth per unit.  Now that I have been watching smoke production closely, I can tell when smoke production is dropping off.  Then, I shut off the smoke using the remote till I can add more - usually let it cool down a bit.

 

St. Paul, thanks for the info on how you fixed the blowdown - will try the same thing.

 

So, grj, how much of a MegaSteam dropper do you put in for a refill?

RickM46

And now it starts.

I typically use about 1/3 of the dropper for refills when I know the smoke is slowing down.  If I'm not sure, I'll just put in a little bit to "prime the pump" and see if that's enough to get it going.

Thanks grj,

I think it is important for the smoke unit to keep an eye on smoke production.

Since I've had the BB and the Lionchief+ B&O, I can tell when smoke is waning and then, after cooldown, add more fluid.  Still experimenting with the doseage as not to overfill.  But, for the BB, I will start using 1/3 of a MegaSteam dropper.

However, the Berkshire junior that came with the Polar Express set smokes as much as the BB and goes a long time - one heck of a little engine!

RickM46

And now it starts.

ST PAUL,

Worked on the blow down on the BB to get it smoking again.

Used your prescription in the following way:

Used the Lionel pipette and put 1 line of Lionel Premium into it.

Got a drinking straw which fit the fill hole tightly - made it easier to blow into the unit.

While leaning on the blow down button, blew strongly into the unit.

This took about 4 long sequences of leaning on the button and blowing into the unit.

Now, it works - how about that!!

RickM46

And now it starts.

RickM46... sometimes it's the bull that triumphs over the matador!

And yet you have to ask what exactly did that fix to make blow down work right??
enjoy the feature now just remember fill it every day at first use.

Mine has worked correctly ever since.