Lionel 1999 Big Boy not chugging right

First off, this cherry switch on the bottom of the board doesn't really do anything, the other one is supplying the chuff signal.  It's usually possible to bend the tab slightly to restore proper operation.  Of course, you can also replace the switch if it's really bad, they're pretty cheap.

Of course, my preferred "fix" is to install the Chuff-Generator, that allows me to have 4-chuffs/rev.  If you pair that with the Super-Chuffer, it gives you good looking smoke with real chuffing and idle smoke.

Thanks for the tip. I do like the supper chuffer you use and have used it in many other engine upgrades of mine but I want to keep this one stock.

Sidney

Sid,

Take a needle nose pliers and bend the bottom tab on the cherry switch up slightly. Before doing that, turn the motor manually and listen to hear the chuff(click) of the cherry switch. Turn the motor a few times to hear the chuffs repeat. If you do not hear continous repeat chuffs, bend that tab up a little and repeat the process I typed above.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

First off, this cherry switch on the bottom of the board doesn't really do anything, the other one is supplying the chuff signal.  It's usually possible to bend the tab slightly to restore proper operation.  Of course, you can also replace the switch if it's really bad, they're pretty cheap.

Of course, my preferred "fix" is to install the Chuff-Generator, that allows me to have 4-chuffs/rev.  If you pair that with the Super-Chuffer, it gives you good looking smoke with real chuffing and idle smoke.

John, is that green wire the serial data input that gets connected to the super chuffer?

Rod Miller

How often is the missed chuff?  This is TMCC and there is an occasional glitch you hear in RS4.0 sounds.  IF it just misses one chuff occasionally, I would leave it alone.  G

romiller49 posted:

John, is that green wire the serial data input that gets connected to the super chuffer?

Rod Miller

Not sure what the green wire is, can't see where it's connected.  If you're using the existing chuff switch, you can connect to a pin on that floating chuff switch position, I just ring it out to see which one is connected to the R2LC pin-17.

That green wire is a wire for the smoke unit that was floating around.

Makes sense, I didn't remember any green wires for the chuff typically.  The odd part is, I color code my wires for installations, and I use green for chuff.

I have seen the smoke unit use green wire to ground around that time frame.  Always remember, wiring colors will vary on Lionel locomotives.  Not always the rule with MTH.  They are very consistent.