I'm going to converting my old Lionel 2018 locomotive back to a pill burner from smoke fluid. Ordered a new wire wound ceramic heating element for it. I did retain the original metal cap which will be reused.
My question is, if I recall correctly Lionel routed the metal tab through the cap, bent the ground tab over the metal cap and tucked it in between the metal housing for the smoke unit and the metal cap to complete the ground for the resistor. Is this correct?
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A smoke unit resistor for Postwar locomotives should have about 15 ohms of resistance. Recently I noticed that the reproduction smoke units I have are about 35 ohms. Hopefully you have a 15 ohm smoke unit heater. I do not think there would be much heat, thus smoke, out of the 35 ohm heaters.
I always take 2 wraps off reproduction heaters. Break wire off at ground solder tab, unwrap 2 turns and wind around tab. Works better at actual track running speeds and less molten material to clog air port.
David Johnston posted:A smoke unit resistor for Postwar locomotives should have about 15 ohms of resistance. Recently I noticed that the reproduction smoke units I have are about 35 ohms. Hopefully you have a 15 ohm smoke unit heater. I do not think there would be much heat, thus smoke, out of the 35 ohm heaters.
That's interesting. I still have the old element so I'll have to count the number of wire wraps around the ceramic core and compare them to the original from 1959.
bmoran4 posted:
Thank you for confirming my memory. It's been awhile since the conversion was made and that's pretty much as I remember the original installation. Thank you again for the help!
Counting the wraps will only be significant if the replacement smoke element is wound with the same type and gauge wire.
I have run into a number of replacement smoke elements with too much resistance. I suspect the problem is due to the wrong wire being used. I rewind them with the correct wire.
I use 34 gauge NiCrA wire.
Here is a reference chart: Wiretron Chart
Chuck Sartor posted:I always take 2 wraps off reproduction heaters. Break wire off at ground solder tab, unwrap 2 turns and wind around tab. Works better at actual track running speeds and less molten material to clog air port.
That's a great thought. It was in an effort to increase the smoke production from this locomotive that lead me to do the conversion in the first place. Taking two turns of wire off the core should drop the resistance quite a bit thereby causing it to run hotter.
This locomotive is pretty efficient in it's operation. Even when pulling 12 O scale freight cars, I can't run her at more than 10-12 volts without it reaching insane speeds on my layout. To scale, I've clocked her doing 83 MPH hauling a dozen cars plus tender.
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