Lionel 6-18058 Hudson smoke unit not working

JTD,

You should email moderator and have him move this to main 3rail or TMCC/Legacy forum.  This forum is for technical issues with the OGR website and other services.  You will get replies a lot sooner if it is posted on one of those forums.

Thanks for the info. I am not sure how to email the moderator so I will just repost this on another forum

don't see a email for you.  I have a new one in my parts.  Email me, my address is in my   profile...

Marty

Marty, pretty sure he needs to just remove the short from the smoke resistor and replace the triac on the R2LC that most likely died due to the short.

Can you hook up your test leads to the unit and tell us what happens???

Marty and John thanks again for your response. I have been real busy at work and I have not been able to respond until now. I checked my input reading again at the smoke unit where the postive/hot lead is attached to the smoke resister, the other lead to ground and the reading when powered up and running in conventional mode is 1.4 volts AC. I checked the resistance of the smoke resistor again and the only reading I get is at the top range (2000k) of the scale on my Craftsman 82140 digital meter. The reading begins at around 1950 and counts down from there. The meter instructions say once a reading is found on the largest scale it says to reduce it to the proper scale for the item being checked. I set the meter on the 200 setting and get no resistance at all. I also checked the other two settings 200k and 2000 and still no reading. I also have a small basic GB needle meter which showed a "0" resistance. I put the second R2LC board back into the 6-38096 Hudson with the fan driven smoke unit and it still smokes so luckily I did not ruin the triac on the second board. Is there a way to check the triac or not? Where can I get a replacement? Marty, do you have the smoke resistor part? I changed my profile setting so my email is now shown. Marty I will send you and email as you asked. I am trying to understand this electronic stuff and I appreciate your assistance.

OK, that's a different reading than first stated, the resistor is clearly open.  A zero on an ohms scale is a direct short.  You have to be specific as to what you're seeing.

I have the standard 27 ohm smoke resistors if you need one.

I sent an email message to Marty has he asked since he said he had one. If I can not get one from him I will let you know if that is ok. What about the triac if I need one? 

You probably won't need one, but I have them as well.  Test the R2LC in the other locomotive and see if you can enable smoke over there, that will verify the triac.

Hello John. I tested the original R2LC board placing it in my other Hudson and it did smoke so the original board and triac are apparently ok. I emailed Marty and he has the complete smoke unit. I don't think at this point I need the whole unit and my problem seems to be the element. You said you have the standard 27 ohm resistors. Is this same the resistor thats in the 8141-55K smoke unit repair kit? I found this kit listed on Ebay and it has the resistor, wick and wadding. I could use a new wick also. If you have the resistor and a new wick that would be great. Can I put extra wadding in the unit I have since the wick is very thin. Thanks

You might as well get the kit.  I cut my wick custom from a roll of fiberglass.  First step is to toss that sock for the resistor, that only reduces the smoke and quickly burns and screws things up!  You can add another layer, it can't hurt.

Thanks again for your reply. Is what you are saying is not to use that sock over the smoke element and just place extra wadding around the element and that you use fiberglass? If the resistor in the kit is the one that will work and I don't need that sock then can I just buy a resistor from you. What about MTH smoke unit wick? 

The mechanical smoke units don't use the braided wick like the MTH wick, they use what is basically a fiberglass pad as you can see in the pictures of that kit.

If you want some of that and the resistor, send me an email to my profile email address.

I just sent you an email message.