Lionel Smoke Unit. . . . balky fan?

New fan motor is probably easiest. But look for the blades to touch anywhere.

Had the same issue on a Legacy GP9.  Even though I could coax the fan to life, after shutdown it would seize again.  Replacing the motor got it back to working 100% and no more blinking cab light.

Bruce

I use MTH smoke fan motors in those.

I typically replace the motor, however, Eric Siegel from ericstrains.com says that a drop of oil on the bearings (both ends) will fix the problem!  Good Luck!   P.S.  Here's my O-gauge model train website if anybody's interested LOL http://www.billsogaugetrains.com/

I've oiled many smoke motors, however it's usually not a long term fix. 

Is the fan pushed too far down on the motor shaft? 

Thanks for the replies:

The smoke unit is the powered A unit. The dummy smokes well.

Oil is not something I've considered. After all, what is smoke fluid if not "oily?"

I have tried jiggling the fan impeller up and down on its shaft with a tweezers . . . to no effect. There is no foreign matter gumming things up I can see.

Going to the Lionel web site leaves me with the feeling that, by the time I got this thing fixed with parts, shipped to me in Canada, I'd be out more than a hundred dollars. I don't see just replacing the motor as being an option? Seems it's the whole smoke unit or nothing?

Just replace the fan motor, quite easy to do and the motor is only a few $

OK, where do I get just the fan motor? As I posted, I do not see it as an available part . . . just the entire smoke unit is listed. This is the listing from the Lionel Replacement Parts page for the engine (6-34645)

From looking at the photo...

Are there two screws under the impeller? Maybe you could use a motor from another engine listing.

The MTH BE-0000041 motor will fit perfectly. 

Seems MTH only sell 5 packs of these motors now. Having a few spares is not a bad idea though. As usual, trying to order from Canada is a frustration. I'll call an MTH dealer in Canada tomorrow and see how far I get.

I knew we had to buy them in fives, but I thought retail you could buy one.  Best to find a dealer locally.

GunrunnerJohn,

Why the MTH motors?  I've seen that quite a few folks seem to prefer any/all MTH smoke units/fans over the Lionel.  I've also noticed MTH trains seem to smoke way better than Lionel.  Do you know why this is?

Lionel had a run of bad motors a few years ago, and many of us were using the MTH motors.  I believe that the current motors from Lionel don't exhibit the high failure rates of the ones in question, but since I get the MTH motors in bulk anyway, I use them if possible.

The fact that many MTH locomotives have better smoke isn't the smoke motor, but the dual resistor design of the MTH smoke units.  With some tweaking, I get very decent smoke from Lionel smoke units, but still not the clouds of smoke I can get from an MTH unit. 

Here's my Hogwart's Express with TMCC and an MTH smoke unit.

Does anyone remember the final answer, or can find the thread(s), to whether it's possible to use a $1 (free shipping) motor off eBay for the smoke fan?  If Lionel and MTH motors are inter-changeable it stands to reason these are not custom parts and might be sourced elsewhere if only one knew what to look for!  Yes, they're readily available in the US for $5 or whatever but I'm thinking of outside the US  where it's apparently more difficult/expensive not to mention shipping charges.  The motors are undoubtedly coming from Asia anyway...

There are many listings on eBay that look like the same motor at least physically (e.g., search on "n20 motor") ...but as I recall the previous discussions it was about the electrical parameters (Voltage, RPM, etc.).   This was several years back so it may have been before the OGR webhost change-over so the threads are gone.

Terry Danks posted:

OK, where do I get just the fan motor? As I posted, I do not see it as an available part . . . just the entire smoke unit is listed. This is the listing from the Lionel Replacement Parts page for the engine (6-34645)

I would give Lionel parts a call to see if they have the motor!  It is very unusual though that the motor is not listed!  Good luck!

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Lionel had a run of bad motors a few years ago, and many of us were using the MTH motors.  I believe that the current motors from Lionel don't exhibit the high failure rates of the ones in question, but since I get the MTH motors in bulk anyway, I use them if possible.

The fact that many MTH locomotives have better smoke isn't the smoke motor, but the dual resistor design of the MTH smoke units.  With some tweaking, I get very decent smoke from Lionel smoke units, but still not the clouds of smoke I can get from an MTH unit. 

Here's my Hogwart's Express with TMCC and an MTH smoke unit.

Yes, Lionel definitely had a run of bad fan motors, a few years back, that made it into their engines, I had to replace quite a few motors back then!  However, since then, I have not had a single replacement motor failure (motors came from Lionel parts)!  Great smoking Hogwarts Express you have there and nice layout!  http://www.billsogaugetrains.com/

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Lionel had a run of bad motors a few years ago, and many of us were using the MTH motors.  I believe that the current motors from Lionel don't exhibit the high failure rates of the ones in question, but since I get the MTH motors in bulk anyway, I use them if possible.

The fact that many MTH locomotives have better smoke isn't the smoke motor, but the dual resistor design of the MTH smoke units.  With some tweaking, I get very decent smoke from Lionel smoke units, but still not the clouds of smoke I can get from an MTH unit. 

Here's my Hogwart's Express with TMCC and an MTH smoke unit.

wow. That's very impressive for a TMCC engine.  That's easily x2 the smoke output of my brand new Legacy SD60e.  Can you link me to a thread that shows how you can tweak newer Legacy smoke units?  Or should I just replace mine with an MTH smoke unit?  That looks incredible.  Mine looks so anemic compared to that. 

If you search there has been lots said about various mods for better smoke, I don't have any thread references at my fingertips.  The best thing you can do for a new Legacy smoke unit is to replace the pad wick with the Lionel braided wick.

Thanks to the advice given here, CN9000 is smokin' up a storm! . . .

In fact, it'll positively drive you from the room with smoke set to anything other than low! I ordered a new smoke unit from Lionel rather than try to replace the motor on the balky unit.

Why? It was the path of least resistance! The Lionel web site made it very easy to order a new unit and have it shipped to Canada for a nominal ten dollar postage fee. Getting a package of five MTH motors was not simple as their website seems strictly a US thing with no provision for shipping to Canada. Wish they would fix that!

Just as well as, I could not figure out how to remove and replace just the motor from the unit. Can't see how it is affixed to the unit? Just yank the impeller off to find mounting screws? Not sure. Impeller didn't seem to want to come off.

But it's smokin' like a champ with the new unit! If the photo looks blurry, well the engine was stationary in the shot with the revs up a tad. A few seconds later you might not have been able to see the engine at all! 

Grab impeller blade with needle-nose pliers, pull straight up.  You'll see two tiny screws that hold the motor in place.

Thanks, John.

PS --- Called MTH a couple of weeks ago and had no problem ordering one fan motor

Thx