Lionel legacy 844

Somebody has been in that locomotive.  My fan does not run when smoke is off.  Lionel's wiring isn't always the neatest but I'm pretty sure that unit has been worked on.  Lionel uses tie wraps to secure wires and the heatshrink on the wires near the stack indicate to me that it's been worked on.

My doesn't "leak" light around the headlight like that.

MartyE posted:

  My fan does not run when smoke is off.  

Are you sure about that Marty? I have one of the "early" Legacy berkshires and the fan runs when the heat is off, not unlike the TMCC steamers that preceded it. Its just that its so quiet you don't realize it.

I can't disagree about the headlight and wiring mess though.

RickO posted:

MartyE posted:

  My fan does not run when smoke is off.  

Are you sure about that Marty? I have one of the "early" Legacy berkshires and the fan runs when the heat is off, not unlike the TMCC steamers that preceded it. Its just that its so quiet you don't realize it.

I can't disagree about the headlight and wiring mess though.

Well it's been a few month since I ran it but the only engine I have that sticks in my mind that the fan continues to run is my  Century Club Turbine.  If it's running it must be very quiet.  I can confirm that later but that engine definitely has hands in it.

That locomotive has definetly been tampered with.  The headlight should not be like that and like Marty said, Lionel usually has somewhat neat wiring with zip ties organizing it.

I think my PRR M1b has the fan on all the time... and my 4-8-4 Santa Fe 3759?

Not sure... but your 844 will need some TLC, hope you got a deal.

J Daddy posted:

I think my PRR M1b has the fan on all the time... and my 4-8-4 Santa Fe 3759?

Not sure... but your 844 will need some TLC, hope you got a deal.

 

My Santa Fe 3751 definitely does not have the fan operating when the smoke is turned off.  I just ran that last week.

Ok, good to know Marty. I will have to pull the 844 down off the shelf and see if it does or does not.

Hmm maybe it was just the Berks 

Wow, I see that engine has a Pittman motor; is that stock?

If so, I am impressed... 

Mark in Oregon

Lionel has been using Pittman for a while.  Charlie Pittman told me he tried to get them to order ball bearing motors without success.

I have a Lionel FEF, 2-railed with new frame and am impressed with the detail and accuracy.  Obviously, I didn't care for the frame and side rods, and all electronics are long gone.

J Daddy posted:

I think my PRR M1b has the fan on all the time... and my 4-8-4 Santa Fe 3759?

Not sure... but your 844 will need some TLC, hope you got a deal.

 

Oh I got a deal, $571 out the door, no box though. 

Strummer posted:

Wow, I see that engine has a Pittman motor; is that stock?

If so, I am impressed... 

Mark in Oregon

I hope it's stock, lol

To push the light forward, would you guys recommend just taking some tweezers and pushing it forward in the housing? I am going to zip tie it all this weekend, hopefully fixing some of the problems.

Jimthetrainfan posted:

Strummer posted:

Wow, I see that engine has a Pittman motor; is that stock?

If so, I am impressed... 

Mark in Oregon

I hope it's stock, lol

It is...

From the Lionel Parts Page...

They have a good wiring diagram too.

Wiring Diagram

For what it's worth this is one of best performing Legacy engines in all aspects.  The smoke unit on mine has never been rebuilt and delivers an amazing amount of smoke.

MartyE posted:

Jimthetrainfan posted:

Strummer posted:

Wow, I see that engine has a Pittman motor; is that stock?

If so, I am impressed... 

Mark in Oregon

I hope it's stock, lol

It is...

From the Lionel Parts Page...

They have a good wiring diagram too.

Wiring Diagram

I appreciate the link! I'll check it over, and do you know if the cab light is suppose to turn off when to locomotive is in motion, or is this to early for that?

Thanks,

Jim

Usually all Lionel locos arrive from the factory with all their wires ziptied. It looks like someone tried fixing the smoke unit and failed to rectify the problem.

MartyE posted:

Jimthetrainfan posted:

Strummer posted:

Wow, I see that engine has a Pittman motor; is that stock?

If so, I am impressed... 

Mark in Oregon

I hope it's stock, lol

It is...

From the Lionel Parts Page...

They have a good wiring diagram too.

Wiring Diagram

 

 

 

Re: Motor...9400 series; nice!

Re: Wiring diagram... !

When I received my 2001 2-8-0, I was impressed with the fact it came with a can motor; I see they upped the bar by later using Pittmans; very cool.

Mark in Oregon

On my Legacy engines, the cab light turns off when the locomotive starts moving.  It is also used to signify problem conditions by blinking in certain sequences.

Jimthetrainfan posted:

J Daddy posted:

I think my PRR M1b has the fan on all the time... and my 4-8-4 Santa Fe 3759?

Not sure... but your 844 will need some TLC, hope you got a deal.

 

Oh I got a deal, $571 out the door, no box though. 

You did good. A little TLC and the engine will be looking great !

I agree with DADDY if these are the only issues you have, consider it a home run! Nick

I have the same model of the 844 - two of them in fact as I like it so much. One was bought new and the other came from auction. It was about the same price as yours but that was something like 6 years ago.

Anyway I have had both open several times. Main problem is the need to service the smoke unit partly because of its vulnerability to AC regulator failure. The one bought at auction also developed an issue with the Pittman motor flywheel rubbing on part of the chassis. 

Someone has definitely been inside your engine and did not do a great job of reassembly BUT it's not the easiest thing to get one of these engines back together. 

The headlight needs to be re-seated and it's better doing that from the inside lest in doing it from outside you pull a wire too hard and snap it. As you have to open the engine anyway take what I think is the safer course.

Regarding the smoke unit being on and indeed puffing, that should not happen if you have turned the manual switch off. However, in command mode this and other Lionel engines of its vintage had smoke units with heaters that remained on when the Railsounds system was shut down. Thus, there's always a small whip of smoke from the unit even when not running the engine.  

P.S. Had a look at the manual for this engine and it does not say (as I think some other Legacy manuals do) that command operation overrides certain manual switches. However, I spotted something on the Lionel website I had not seen before for this engine, which is a wiring diagram for the engine and tender. The engine diagram its attached. It shows the smoke unit on/off switch as a simple connection between a center rail output on the motherboard and the AC regulator to cut power to the smoke unit. So maybe that switch has gone bad. I know from past experience it's not easy to trace the wires in this engine but if you are bundling them up anyway it might be worth looking at the switch and its connections to see if something is amiss there. 

If you find a solution please post it for the benefit of the rest of us!