Lionel Vision Line SP GS3 - Tender Marker Light removal - RESOLVED

Truthfully, I'd not worry that much about breaking the LED's, they're pretty easy to source and replace.  The only downside is you might have to replace both to get a matched set.

Thanks gunrunnerjohn, before I try and remove it then, maybe I will see how skilled I am and try to do a wire splice from within the shell

Well, I was actually able to fix the wire without removing anything, steady hands and a quick solder. However, there is still something wrong with this tender. I don't understand why the lights behave like that. I couldn't find anymore broken wires or wires touching the metal frame. I reseated all the connections on the board. Maybe a bad lighting board? I will give this one more round and then just call Lionel for an RMA repair.

@gunrunnerjohn

Rediculous,send it back. Lionel picks up the return shipping on VL stuff don't they?

  Its like they sent someone else's broken locomotive in place of yours.

There should be plenty of room in that tender where that wire wouldn't get hacked up like that.

It's 100% a grounding issue since it only happens when the tender shell is placed on the chassis itself. I had the shell board plugged in but not on top of the chassis and I slowly made my way down the track holding the shell and the lights worked fine.

FYI - the primary issue was the tiny screw that held in the engineer side marker light housing was too long and was touching one of the LED wires. This screw also touches the top shell so when it made contact with the chassis it was causing all kinds of signal issues. I unscrewed it a few turns and now everything is working fine.

The secondary issue was the wire on the fireman side which need to be fixed.