Gunrunner john maybe you could help me. I bought a smoke unit rebuild, 27ohm, for my k-linfe scale Hudson#5343 while I wait to purchase your upgrade parts. On the bench, loco no tender, I measured voltage in 18v at rollers, and at 3vac board output to resistor. So I disconnected between smk.switch board and hardwired so to speak, from resistor, through switch, to yellow wire nut. On top of motorboard in picture. Bench tested at 18v, good smoke. While buttoning up,this black cap (shorting bar?) falls out! Question, since this happened I tendered up, powered up and addressed ok. Not ok! Lost chuff. Checked chuff microswitch ok. So i put that cap on all 3 legs in pic. Its taking commands but erratically. no chuff, and whistle drops out on loop while commanding. Went through factory reset 740. Even took resistor out of circuit. Is this thing a lost puppy? Think I might just pack this and my crane up and ship it to you! To install your upgrade also of course.
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That shorting plug goes on the inside two pins of the three-pin connector.
What's wrong with the crane?
Thanks John, I captivated all 3 so I'll follow your advice and let you know what happened. My crane? Well it tried to cross over loops,(postwar 711's back to back) lead truck picked the switch and second truck didn't and at the same time old solder joint on the old 711 center rail failed,all this happened with 1 block at 7v. Now everytime I power up, outriggers deploy and won't take any commands. Any thoughts on it?
Sounds like the crane as suffered an electronic failure. I hope those custom boards are still available.
I looked at one TMCC Crane Car parts list, and all the boards appear to still be in stock...
John thank you so much,that did the job. Dabbed on some ce adhesive,loose fit. Are you familiar with the saying, take the good with the bad? Loco ran like new out of the box. 3 minute tops and burnt out the 27ohm.but buddy did it smoke! Needless to say I won't be opening her up till I can get super chuff parts! PS: this is the loco you helped fix my coupler problem. Onto the crane. Any chance you could look at it? No rush but again, I could send that and the Hudson for smk.upgrade. appreciate your help.
I suggest sending the crane to someone that has more experience with it. I fixed mine, but it was kind of a PITA, not sure I want to get embroiled in someone else's crane. Mike Reagan at TWX comes to mind, I'm sure he knows his way around the crane.
OTOH, I'm very familiar with the smoke upgrades.
Thanks for the info. Seems to me you might be interested in repairing and upgrading. Your super smoker and board tutorials seem straight forward, although I have reservations on me modifiying the mechanical puffer. Your experience and knowledge and advice are an invaluable tribute you bring to the table. Thanks again, Ron
I'll also check here in central Florida on the crane, thanks
Mounting the MTH fan driven smoke in the K-Line locomotives is something I've gotten fairly good at, I've done a bunch of those. It's a little tricky, but it yields a good result when done.
Update on tmcc crane. It has sat in it's box 1wk. I put it on track tonight, powered up track and sure enough it deployed outriggers but this time it became quite. No outrigger buzz and now the steady led is on and the address/command led is indicating only its message,not other locos #s. My question is now is there a circiut breaker,fuse to mb. Because now when I power up (went through programing) no deployment,good but, nothing works.lites do come on in conventional which I always was able to do by using horn on zw. But not by keys aux1-4/5. Where did all my board power go?