Milwaukee Road S-3 smoke

Hi Jeff,

First with the S-3 the stack doesn't line up with the smoke unit inside,it is offset so make sure when you're adding fluid the funnel or the pipette is going into the offset on the inside.

Second anytime you get a flashing light in the cab,do a full factory reset, 90 percent of the time the factory reset will fix the problem.For this engine the reset code should be 74. See photo's below

Alex

Alex interesting.

If i read this correctly, the reset of features under Legacy mode for a legacy engine doesn't call for a specific reset code. You make reference to the TMCC reset procedure for TMCC engines which use the specific code. I am interpreting this as the need to forlloe the TMCC procedure for Legacy engines reset , therefore the use of code 74.

Is that a correct understanding on my part?

On the Legacy locomotive just put in the engine ID number to do the reset.

Yes Marty is right, it really is for TMCC engine's. You can just use the engine ID number to do the reset. I've always used this  TMCC reset on all my engine's. I'm just use to doing it that way. Sorry it's just a habit, 90 percent of the engines I work on are TMCC.

Alex

My S-3 went back to Lionel 3 times before it was fixed.  I tried the reset multiple times and sometimes it worked, but other times it did not.  I thought I was doing something wrong.  I checked my track, power supply and even thought it was my Cab1 at the time.  I was over thinking to what the problem could be.  The real problem was with the smoke unit itself.  Inserting the funnel to far down probably did not cause the problem.   Hopefully, the reset you did will correct yours and you won't have to send it in for repair. 

The smoke units on these engines seem problematic.  There was a member at my club yesterday that was having the same issue with his S-3.  I reset it for him and the smoke unit worked fine, but after awhile the cab light started to blink again.  I tried to reset it again, but it did not work.  He just got it back from being repaired at LHS, but looks like it needs some more repair work.   

Good Luck

Ken

This may not apply in your case, but sometimes a 2-blink code can be the result of a loose connection in the cable that connects the smoke unit to the main circuit boards. It may well be worth checking that this cable is fully plugged in at both ends.

Replace the smoke fan with a MTH fan and forget about smoke unit problems.

Unfortunately Paul the 2 Blinks indicate an element issue, 3 blinks is the fan.

I was told that some of the issues with the element could be caused by the conductivity of the fluid used.  Some fluids cause the resistor to show a short to the chassis via the fluid.

Not sure if this is a line to use the Lionel fluid but I trust the source so I continue to use the Lionel fluid with little problems.

Take that with a grain of salt but I had one smoke unit issue in all of my Legacy locos with the trouble code.  I continue to only use Lionel premium fluid.

In my S-3, Lionel Premium Smoke Fluid works the best.  I have tried JT's and MTH's, but neither has worked that well in my S-3.  In my other Legacy engine JT's and MTH do fine.  I picked up 2 bottles from LHS back in April. Since I have had so many troubles with the smoke unit with my S-3, I won't use anything else except Lionel Premium Smoke Fluid in my S-3. 

Ken

JT's smokes up a storm in mine. I haven't had any of the Lionel Premium; the LHS doesn't stock it and Lionel was out of it for a long time. I've got a bottle on the way now with some other things I ordered; we'll see how it works and in particular if the cylinder steam is any more visible than with the JT's. The stack smoke is more than plenty with JT's, but the steam out the cylinders is pretty thin.