Just got a cw 80 and it says on the bottom it has 0-18 volts on the variable. The most I can get out of it with no load is 14.2 volts and 13.8 volts with full load. Needless to say this is not enough to make engine smoke. Am I missing some sort of setting to get voltage up or is it defective. Thanks for any answers.
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What type of meter are you using? Many meters will show a low voltage for the chopped-wave format of many modern transformers.
If this is the case, then your voltage should be fine.
What are you using to take the measurements? You should be getting a higher reading. What is the voltage at the receptacle that it's plugged into?
I am using a digital multimeter on the ac 20 volt range. Input house voltage is 120 volts. Guess I will try it on running a legacy engine through the legacy cab 2 and see how it runs
Well, the house current isn't the cause. The CW usually measures 15.8-17 from previous posts here on the forum. So, your readings do sound a little low with allowance for the chopped output of the CW.
The fixed voltage for accessory use is adjustable and would be set at ~14 from the factory. There is no adjustment that you are missing for the variable track voltage other than the handle.
Does it drop to zero before the end of the travel of the handle?
I recall, when I measured ours about a year ago, that our CW-80 was also giving a reading just north of 14v while our ZW'C was at the full 18v on all 4 handles.
the lights in the passenger cars do not get as bright as they do on the zw at 18 volts on the meter. The zw is supposed to put out 20 volts but only does 18 at full throttle but that is enough for use on tmcc. guess I will use the cw 80 for accessories but too bad it doesn't go 18 for the cut wave power on the smoke units.
Even if your metered voltage seems to be a little lower than normal, you should find that it works fine for smoke units. One big advantage of the chopped-waveform is that electro-couplers, smoke units etc. work better at lower indicated voltages.
Have you tested it to see how it works yet?
No, guess I should, but I have a GW 180 coming and hope that puts out 18 volts and then I can use the 80 watt on my aux layout. That is a legacy diesel and smokes great already.
I just tried it and it ran the train fine but not much smoke. I still smokes better with 18 volts of sine wave from the zw than the 14 volts from the cw80. If lionel says 18 volts why doesent it put out that. It must be defective. If Jon is reading this can you advise please>
It appears your CW-80 transformer is working just fine.
Here is the "correction chart" for measuring the CW-80 output:
Do you have a "true RMS" voltmeter? Most AC voltmeters assume that you are measuring a sinusoidal waveform, which the CW-80 definitely does not put out. Here is a correction chart for use with an ordinary voltmeter:
Meter RMS
0 0
0.5 1.6
1 2.7
1.5 3.7
2 4.6
2.5 5.4
3 6.1
3.5 6.9
4 7.5
4.5 8.2
5 8.8
5.5 9.5
6 10
6.5 10.6
7 11.2
7.5 11.7
8 12.2
8.5 12.7
9 13.2
9.5 13.7
10 14.1
10.5 14.6
11 15
11.5 15.4
12 15.8
12.5 16.2
13 16.6
13.5 16.9
14 17.3
14.5 17.6
15 17.9
15.5 18.2
16 18.5
16.5 18.8
17 19
17.5 19.3
18 19.5
18.5 19.7
19 19.8
19.5 19.9
20 20
You can see that when the CW-80 is putting out its full 18 volts, an ordinary meter (which I'm assuming is what you've got) should read about 15 volts.
I just borrowed my friends GW 180 which goes to 18 .4 unloaded and 17.2 full load. It has the engine smoking fairly good but not as much as 18.1 volts off of my lionel 250 watt Z which as far as I know is sine wave. I assume the gw 180 is the chopped sine wave. One thing is I am running the output of the GW through a mth tiu. Does that change the waveform on the output or does it remain the same waveform on the output? Again thanks for your help. The chart says the 17 volts of the gw should be 19 volts sinewave so I should not notice any less smoke on the gw but more.
Instead of trying to squeeze everything out of the transformer, I'd consider just doing a few tweaks to the smoke unit. Normally you can smoke yourself out of the room with a little effort. 
what do you suggest I do to the smoke unit John?
The normal upgrades, depending on the type. Is it a fan driven unit or a puffer?
fan driven
One thing is I am running the output of the GW through a mth tiu. Does that change the waveform on the output...
Variable channels, yes, fixed, no.
Note these instructions are for the standard "dumb" Lionel smoke unit with just the 5V regulator on-board and the standard 27 ohm resistor. You can improve other types as well, but you have to be specific as to what you have.
You can enlarge the fan intake port, repack with new wick, and change the resistor to 20 ohms from the standard 27 ohm resistor. Make sure the resistor is seated firmly in the wick bed, but not covered. Also, make sure you do not obstruct the fan output port, air must be able to flow from the fan output to the stack and across the resistor.
If you do all these mods correctly, you'll get considerably more smoke than from the stock smoke unit.
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