More on the "Genset Rain Protected Smoke Stacks" thread...

I can't see exactly what you have, what's the spacing on those connectors.  All the connectors are available, I stock the 2.5mm, the 2mm, and the 1.5mm connectors that Lionel uses.  I frequently build my own harnesses if I need a custom one.  Those look like either the 2mm or the 2.5mm connectors.  Rebuilding that harness shouldn't be a major issue.

A closer look at the sides of the connectors would help as well.  Those look to be the JST PH 2.0mm connectors from the pictures.

This is the JST EH connector, note the side grooves.

This is the JST PH 2.0mm connectors

That's encouraging...I was about to go have a martini.

It's the 2mm spacing. The socket pins are the ones with the short barb as shown here. I have some of them left over from some Cruise M stuff I think is where they came from...maybe some ERR ACC kits.

Anyway here is what they look like. Do you have some Digikey part #s?

I'm finding the JST EH 2.5mm but not the 2 mm.

Oh...the 12 pin is a 2mm and the 4 pin ends are 2.5mm but they both use the same female pins.

So I have 3 of the 4 pin EH wired to the 12 pin PH harness

And then 3 jumpers of 4 pin PH to 4 pin PH in 2, 4, and 7 inch lengths.

They do NOT use the same pins, even though it looks like it!  The appropriate pins are on each connector detail at the bottom of the page.  Don't try to stick the wrong pins into the connector, they will not work.

JST PH Family 2mm Rectangular Connectors

JST EH Family 2.5mm Rectangular Connectors

I use the Engineer PA-09 Crimp Tool to crimp these, it's gone up in price considerably since I bought mine!

Yes I saw that one is .5mm and one is .6mm I guess. The PH takes the narrow ones.

I'm considering just selling this for parts or as is. I found a couple more "warm" wires underneath some of the bundles. Maybe I'll find one new in the box some day. This engine ran fine, great sounds, and all the fans worked and the first and third stacks smoked. The fan worked on the middle stack, but no smoke. The resistor was all gunked up with gooey packing. Great shell, etc. Was missing the 4 windows. I don't have that much in it. So I could move on and not lose much.

Thanks for the help on the connectors. I found all of them on Digikey and the two sizes of pins. So I have $12 coming but they are good for other stuff. Worth learning about the connectors. Thanks.

It doesn't sound like it would be that hard to restore this one, I don't quite understand your reluctance.

How cheap are you selling it?

Yes, I'm just tired at the end of the day. Maybe I'll make the harness and see how it goes. I've got 300 in it so far.

GRJ, I'm wondering since the burned wire (a single wire looks to be the only source of the other wire insulation melting) starts at the Smoke Fan Control PCB middle smoke unit socket. The wire was connected to a 4 connection pin marked on the back of the board labeled RAW (could be RAU) and goes to the smoke unit 4 connection pin labeled SMK+ (I was wrong when I said above that it went to MOT-). The wire was cooked it's whole length up to the smoke unit plug.  I'm pretty sure the SMK+ end of the resistor was touching the metal smoke unit case at some time. And there is a burn spot from one of the smoke unit screw heads that rests on the inside of the genset shell roof. I'm wondering if I should buy the $42 fan smoke fan control board.

All three RAWs are connected together on the smoke fan control PCB, so they sound like a buss that maybe isn't hurt by grounded the other end of a long wire thru a couple connectors, and a light touch to ground. So maybe I don't need to buy the $42 board

It is possible that the smoke fan control board took a hit, I've replaced several of those in various locomotives.  OTOH, I'd first fix the wiring and then see where I stand.  Moving the connection between smoke units will tell you if it's the smoke unit or the wiring, you have three identical smoke units.

I think that's my plan. My heart is not back in this thing yet

It was fun figuring out the source of the short though.

Temporary update...

I started making a new wiring harness with the two sizes of pins and connectors and got ADHD pretty quick, so at that time, I happened to get the idea of searching all the Lionel parts that had Harness in their name since there were no harnesses listed in the Genset list. I came up with hundreds of harnesses, 6 of which looked to answer the length and pin/housing requirements. We shall see, but three of them the same will plug into the 12 pin tiny socket making the large multi connector harness. And the other three look to be the ones that will plug from Smoke PCB to each smoke unit. It's hard to tell if I have all the connector housings figured correctly ( had to down load the pictures and blow them up), but this is so much more fun!

One way or the other...

Check the exact wiring carefully.   Even if it's not all correct, you can take the wires out of the connectors and rearrange them to the proper configuration.

Roger...

Any reason why the resistors are not soldered to the PCB instead of screw and nut? Can it be a heat issue. Aren't other PCB smoke resistors soldered in? Is it the low value of the resistor as to peak heat?

For reasons that only the folks at Lionel know, they started using screws for the resistors fairly early in the Legacy production.  They might have done it for some TMCC, but it's their standard mounting method now.

It's smoking again!!

cjack posted:

It's smoking again!!

That's great. Perseverance pays off. I'm glad you stuck with the effort as I can't see  Lionel (or MTH) offering this kind of operating feature set again - or not any time soon. 

Well done.

Looks nice inside. With new harness I made out of 3 Lionel harnesses. A tiny bit longer so easier to plug together before putting the shell back on.

It's hard to time a short single video and demo all three stacks...random is random.

Chuck, I'm glad you stuck with it, they're a really neat piece when everything is working.  I can put my whip away now, you've crossed the finish line!

Nice team work, guys! Another fine example of the value of this forum. 

Thank you Chuck for sharing.

Thank you John for your help (once again).

Alex

cjack posted:

It's hard to time a short single video and demo all three stacks...random is random.

You're getting much better smoke out of yours than I do out of mine (despite the fact that it's had relatively little run time). I've been very reluctant to open it up on the basis that getting it back together is likely to be challenging, to say the least. 

Are you still searching for the rain stacks? 

Hancock52 posted:

cjack posted:

It's hard to time a short single video and demo all three stacks...random is random.

You're getting much better smoke out of yours than I do out of mine (despite the fact that it's had relatively little run time). I've been very reluctant to open it up on the basis that getting it back together is likely to be challenging, to say the least. 

Are you still searching for the rain stacks? 

It smokes very well now. I guess that will change over time, but I repacked it with Lionel's latest 008 part number packing which seems to work better than previous material.

I'm still looking for the rain protected stacks. These were so crushed, I straightened them as best I could, that I ended up just super gluing one open.