Headlight not working on Santa Fe 2343 Non-motor F unit

A wiring diagram shouldn't be necessary as there should simply be a single wire running from the pickup rollers to the headlight.  In a 2343 the horn was located in the powered unit, so the dummy unit would only have a headlight.  Either that wire connection is bad, the socket isn't making a good ground contact with the frame, or your bulb is bad.

If you replaced the pickup shoe, then that was only for the operation of the front coupler and shouldn't affect your headlight.

This is about as close as it gets. One wire.

Thanks.  So simple yet so difficult.  The shoe is new.  The rivit is new, The wire is new.  The bulb is new and lights up in other devices.  It has to be the ground with the socket and the engine body.

Wizzer its either bulb wire connection point or the bulb assembly is lose from dummy frame so no ground.

Unscrew the 2 screws out from pickup assembly be careful as there is an insulating washer each screw hole and easily lost then gently open to expose the lamp wire connection point which is lamp wire soldered to a lug originally down bellow the copper pickup spring.

If that is fine put dunny on track without shell give it some volts and gently move the lamp assembly to see if lamp will light , there should be bent clips holding it to frame underneath it.

OK, so you've mentioned the collector shoe a couple of times now and I'm thinking you may have made a mistake in your wiring.

The collector assembly (rollers and pickup shoe are mounted to a common fiber plate as I recall) should have two separate wires coming off of it.  One wire comes off of the collector slide shoe and should run to the front coupler coil (only receives power when energized by the uncoupling/remote track section power rails).  The pickup rollers should have a wire attached to them that goes straight to the contact in the lamp socket so that it constantly receives power from the track.  Did you maybe wire the pickup shoe to the headlight mistakenly?  Again, changing the pickup shoe and rivet should have absolutely nothing to do with the function of the headlight, it only powers the front coupler when on a remote track section.

If I'm correct, as you have it wired, the headlight should illuminate if you park the locomotive's front truck on an operating track section and hit the "unload" button with the track power turned on.

If I'm not correct, then your chassis ground (or lack thereof) is likely the cause of your problem.  If you wiggle the socket with track powered applied you'd likely get it to light if the grounding is the issue.

Was the chassis on this locomotive repainted by chance?

Jake, thanks for the reply.  I took the old wire(s) off of this 2343 a number of years ago.  Stored the 2343 and now just recently pulled it out.  Then forgot how it was wired and no matter what I did could not get the headlight to work.

All of what you say makes since. For one, there are not two seperate wires.  Only one new wire attached to the light socket with a small spring under it. This one wire is soldered to the shoe rivet.  That's why I figured I needed a wire diagram because I knew the current has to go thru the rollers but as my 2343 is wired there is no wire connecting the rollers to anything.

I could solder the light socket to the engine truck better but with no wire going from the rollers to the light socket even a batch of solder isn't going to improve anything.

I need a diagram or a picture of a properly wired Lionel F- 4 dummy (non motor) unit.

Here are few pictures of what I have now:

I can’t recall how the rollers are physically connected to the wire but that is where your power wire for the lamp needs to be connected.  It shouldn’t in any way be connected to the pickup shoe as that’s only for triggering the coupler (there should be a tab on the side of the coupler coil for soldering that wire to).

If I have time tomorrow evening I’ll dig mine out and send some pictures along that might help.  The diagram Rob posted above is going to be the closest you’ll get for the wiring diagram.  It shows the coupler circuit and the lamp circuit as well as how they’re separate entities.

Like I said, the only wire I have is from the shoe rivet to the base of the socket.  It is a new wire and it has the round black base with an exposed rivet in it to make contact with the new bulb (which lights up in other devices).  There is a small spring under the round black base of the socket.  There is no wire that is going from the roller arms to the light socket.  There are felt washer under the two screws that hold the roller arm assembly to the base of the engine truck.  Maybe the sides of the socket are not making contact with the bulb --but when I attach a wire directly to the shoe rivet and to the metal portion of the truck the light lights up.

Wizzer here is mine with sloppy solder to the lug i see yours is same .

Also the 2 screws each should have a plastic insulator that the screw goes into as you tighten them down,.

Simple connection if light still does not lite up then its your ground. Lamp assembly should not wiggle but tight to dummy frame as mentioned in few post up.

Make sure the bulb you are putting in actually works. There may nothing out of order.

Red wire to lamp, black wire to coupler.

As I mentioned (and as shown in Rob’s photo), that wire for the headlight should not in any way be connected to the pickup shoe. It appears that you’re current configuration is using the crimp lug for the power pickup rollers connection as a guide clamp for the wire.  It should be crimped around the bare wire end, not the insulation.  Alternatively you can solder the wire to that lug, just make sure it won’t touch the metal truck frame when the plate is mounted back to the truck.

long story short, you need to move your wire from the pickup shoe to the opposite side of the plate where the pickup roller connection is.

Thaks Jake and Rob the picture and what you two have to say really helps.  I have never used the coupler action on any of my 2343 units and I seem to recall only one wire  being used ---now I see that there are two wires needed (IF you want both the coupler and headlight to both work.)  This engine was new to me back in the mid 1950's and I have been the only owner.  I am just content with the headlight working so will move the wire from the shoe rivet.

FINALLY!   After all the emails, postings, pictures, a new headlight wire, a new spring, a new shoe with attached wire soldered to it, postage and more postage, my headlight on the 2343 is fianlly working again.  I cannot thank all of you enough.

Now I better understand why collectors collect rare items (in boxes of course) then put them on a shelf and do not use them --the more you use them the more they break; the more they break the more you have to fix.

And the beat goes on and on and on..........

Wizzer for some thats the fun part as parts are readily available for postwar and many prewar engines.