K-Line Smoke Unit Question

Well, I'd be a little surprised if it varied much from 27 ohms.  1cm in length throws me, that's really small. Since K-Line drives the smoke unit from the R2LC smoke output, they wouldn't have strayed far from the 27 ohm Lionel standard.

How about a picture of the smoke unit and resistor?

Hi Ted, this is Marks K-Line Metrolink F59PHI engine you're working on correct? 

I was helping him with some diagnosis of the smoke unit and the wire wound resistor was broken towards one of the leads. It might be a long shot, but could you try measuring the resistance the heating element from the part of the resistor that broke off, to the lead of the side where it isn't broken off? It could give you a good idea of what the resistance was originally.

I also was witnessed what happened to the smoke unit when he was operating the engine with it on. It seemed to work fine for about 30 seconds but upon moving the engine there was a large amount of smoke output for a few seconds and then it suddenly quit. He was operating the engine with the cruse control off, I did turn that on for him after the smoke unit stopped working. So could having the cruse control off contributed towards the heating element burning out, GunrunnerJohn?

Cruise should have no bearing on what happened with the smoke unit, it's wired directly to the smoke output of the R2LC.  The thing that "might" have a bearing is the R2LC smoke triac.  They've been known to short and put a full 18V on the smoke resistor, so instead of 6-7 watts, it's suddenly dissipating 12 watts.  That will cook them.  Next step it to check the R2LC smoke output and make sure that triac isn't fried.  They can be replaced, they're a fairly cheap part.

John,

Here are two photos.  One with the caliper measures 10.76mm.  I considered a 27ohm resistor but the length puzzled me.

Ted

@SD3R Ted It appears that the topic of this thread is of the same smoke unit, PCB design looks identical and the author confirmed that it's 27 ohms for the resistor. https://ogrforum.com/...en-smoke-unit-wiring

You can still buy 27 ohm resistors from Lionel parts website, if you don't have any handy. But they might be too wide for what you need for this repair.

The standard 27ohm resistor will fit fine in that smoke unit.  If you check it's dimensions, I think you'll find it's about the same size as the rectangular Lionel smoke units.  Plenty of room in there for the standard smoke resistor.