Lionel 2026 E Unit Wiring

Steve, you should not use the shrink tubing on the field leads. It is way to stiff and forces all the flexing onto the weakest wire, the magnet wire the field is wound with. Lionel usually wraps the magnet wire around the stranded wire, solders it, and then slides a piece of flexible sleeving over the connection. When working on the e-unit first thing to do is slide the sleeve back and unsolder that connection to prevent breaking the magnet wire.

Now you need to use a strong light and your best reading glasses to locate the other end of the broken field wire. If it is the wire on the outside of the field coil, you can usually unwind one turn to get enough slack to make a solder connection. If the wire that broke is the end of the inside coil, the motor is probably toast.  You could contact Bob Hannon and see if he can recover it.

Thanks David

so just solder green wire  directly to motor field or what you call magnet. Green wire is long enough and cover with one of the original fabric sleeves to cover it .
As for connecting to magnet did not know the wire could be unwound

will try

if not work engine becomes display model only already bought new e unit that is why green wire long enough

cheers and thanks Steve

It is not really called a magnet. He is referring to what is called magnet wire which the field and the armature is wound with. It is a very thin wire with a coating on it. Yes it can be unwound a turn be careful very delicate you have to scrape the coating off of it to solder it. If you mess it up I'm sure Bob Hannon can rewind it. He did an armature for me recently great work.

David or anyone else who can verify

can you please verify that in the latest pictures provided that the green wire for the 2026 E Unit should be soldered to the area where the wire is pointing? There are about 7-8 mm of wire left

Thanks Steve

Steve I can't really see where the wire is coming from. You have to give better pictures of the E unit. If that's where the wire is coming from it could be one side of the field coil. Why don't you just take that green wire and touch it to that point and see if it works.

Steve,  the field coil has two ends. One is connected to the green wire and the other end is grounded to the motor frame. In the picture you are pointing at the ground connection. This is not where you want the green wire to go. In your second picture I can see the end of the broken wire. These is a hole in the fiber spacer and Lionel wound the wire through it to tie off the loose end. The wire is broken off right against the hole in the fiber. There is no wire protruding now. You will need to use fine tweezers to get the loop in the hole unwound.  Then unwrap one coil from the field and loop it back through the little hole in the fiber support. The varnish will have to be scrapped or sanded off the field wire so you can resolder it to the green wire.

Yes the green wire is coming from a new E Unit left side as seen in picture

Maybe the broken wire shows up better in your third picture. Right in the center of the coil at the top. Just below the steel motor spacer.

Steve do exactly as David says that wire should go in that hole in the fiber on the field coil. Hopefully you do not have to unwind it but if you do no big deal.

David

SUCCESS FORWARD AND BACKWARDS!!!

I will post a couple more pics to finish thread to show finished work so someone else may benefit!

David you and Jim are the train doctors! 😂

Dave

The power unit works great now but when I attach the shell it grounds out at does not work?

I am attaching some pics, I am placing wires in top of shell to side please if you can tell me what I am doing wrong

thanks

Lionel did not do the best job of managing there wire bundles. None of the wires should cross the edge of the motor plates. The boiler shell is close at this location and can pinch the wire insulation. Run the wires down the side of the motor. On the power terminal on the e-unit, none of the wire should extend beyond the fiber board the lever is mounted on. Some of your wires could be shorter, like the green wire. Everything just needs to fit. Sometimes a piece of electrical tape inside the shell at just the right place is necessary to keep close things from touching.

The problem I see is the connection between the red wire and black wire that are connected on the E-unit coil.  If it's sticking out passed the fiberglass board it will short to the shell.  There is no clearence in that area.   Remove the solder blob and you should be ok, just keep it away form the edge or put tape over it.