Lionel 1334 New Haven no chuff after installing RS boards

1st verify your item number so we’re all 100% on the same sheet music.

Going by the clues of the engine you describe, chuff originates from ground. So it’s a pretty simple logic. There’s a ground wire attached to one side of the cherry switch. I’ve seen the chuff input wired both ways, either switched close to complete the path to ground, or the switch open to complete the path to ground. But the idea is to make & break from ground to produce a chuff…….Now where that chuff in wire goes from the switch to the mother board will depend on your specific model, so having the item # will be easier to confirm the pathway,…..

Pat

Sure, the switch is closed to ground.

The locomotive is a 6-18085. The kit is 6-22963 with a M2758 sticker on the box. I have included the diagrams I have to work with.

First thing I’d verify is the cam on the axle hasn’t split, and isn’t moving the switch…or if ts driven by the smoke lever, make sure it isn’t stuck,……I’ve seen this happen, on the bench, the cam moves the lever, but when running, the cam just sits there, because it’s cracked. If that’s working as advertised, the next easiest step is to remove the chuff in wire from the switch, and make it so you can touch ground and release with your fingertips,…..power up your engine in idle and touch ground and release quickly,…..you should make a chuff sound if everything is correct. That will tell you what direction to go,…..if no chuff still, it’s further up the line, if chuff works, the problem is at your switch,…..I’ve had cherry switches I thought were fine not deliver the correct make & break to produce a chuff,….

Pat

I've tried to bump the cherry switch while idling. I've tried bridging the switch while idling with no positive results. I'm assuming I could ground a pin on the RS board? I've tried to ground the pin they show receiving the green wire with nothing changing. If I could just figure out if that's the right pin. I mean the instructions say it is, but... I'd love to hear it chuff just once so I know how to continue.

If you’ve verified your switch is open, and there’s no completion to ground at a specific  wheel orientation, then at idle while powered up, you should be able to stab and release the chuff in wire on the back of the cherry switch from ground with a jumper wire to produce a chuff sound.

Pat

It shouldn’t matter if you’re running the electronic reverse unit, or a radio board, …..chuff input is pin 17 on the mother board header,….if unsure, use the diagram below to find the path,….

Pat

And here’s the chuff input on the audio board so you can follow that path too, ….note pin 21 is chuff in on RS3 & 4 …

Pat

So if you want to back into it, you can find pin 21 on the tender side, find the appropriate pin in the tether, power up your tender alone, and touch and break ground from the tether ( needle works great for this ) and produce a chuff that way,….that’s starting from the backside then you can move forward,….

Pat

thank you for those diagrams.  They helped me immensely.  The chuff input on the RS board was not tied to the harness plug socket. I slipped a wire in the socket on the board before installing it and hard wired it to the green tether wire. I also hardwired the chuff switch to the loco terminal where the green wire was. I don't know why but these boards don't seem to coincide with the real world. In any case I'll look at it more closely to make it work with the harness. For now it works. No crew sounds though. Wondering why not.

Thank you very much for your help Pat.

Scott

Good, glad it helped,….I hear chuffs, so we’ll call it a success,….as far as crew talk, I’m assuming you’re running conventional?…..by the looks of how it’s running it seems that way, …..I think you can activate crew talk by short whistle blasts??…don’t quote me on that, but let someone that knows conventional operation with Railsounds answer that one with authority, …….I’m sure there’s a way, & it may depend on the transformer type you’re using as well,…..

Pat

Oh you know what? I think I read somewhere sitting in neutral a whistle blast starts the crewtalk. According to the instructions some things can only be accessed using TMCC. I'll try the whistle blast first.