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The smoke unit stopped producing smoke. (or so I thought) .  It ran fine  for months then, one day, nothing.   I disassembled the smoke unit per the instructions to check the wick. It was lightly charred but OK.

 I decided to check the motor independently  and it worked fine.  I thought maybe the impeller was stuck  so when I gently tugged it came right off and then rechecking the motor I noticed the motor made noise and I assume the shaft was spinning but the impeller was not.  Compared to needing the strength of Hercules to pull out an impeller on a lionel smoke unit, this impeller slipped right off.   it appears it no longer adheres to the shaft tight enough  to spin, rather the shaft spins in the spindle freely.  Never had that happen.  I  then reconnected the car wash to my layout, and hooked up only the smoke unit, no lights.  Started it up and right on cue the smoke unit was generating smoke, the fan motor was running, ( I could hear it and feel  the vibration) and smoke was very thick, but wasn't being forced out of the unit until I blew into the fill tube, then WOOSH!  Nearly set off  the smoke alarm, but when I stopped blowing, the smoke only wafted out...  I  believe  this confirms the shaft is spinning in the impeller freely. Has anyone had this happen?  Should I replace both the impeller and the fan motor, or just the impeller?  

Thanks for your help.

 

 

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Well, it worked, 2 times then  no smoke. I pulled the unit and the fan ran intermittently when  I  put power to it, then stopped.  I've concluded it died.  I have extra fan motors for lionel locos, the are not as long as the MTH unit, but the screw holes match.  Can I use one of those as a replacement for the MTH smoke fan motor?

Now the smoke unit does nothing.  I started the car wash twice after assembling  and it worked fine then, on the3rd time,  it quit working. I pulled out the smoke unit,  put power to the fan motor  and it  worked fine. In trying to diagnose the problem i connected all the lighs to the mother board, did not connect the smoke unit  with the intention of checking to see if there was power in the male connection going  to the smoke unit on the mother board.  Then i realized i don’t know if the mother board supplies AC or DC to the lead connected to the smoke unit PC Board.  I did try both AC and DC but, at the point that smoke would be coming out there was no power in that connector. Or at least what I did didn’t register any.  I’m stumped.  I’m not sure if I should just buy a complete smoke unit, or pull the base apart to see if the switch is not working.  The door opens, the lights come on when the car  enters, makes the right noises, etc. Everything works fine but the smoke unit.   

Any help/suggestios would be  appreciated.

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