no smoke

Hi the smoke unit can easily be repaired either the heater is not getting hot or the fan is the noise you were hearing, maybe it needs oiled if it's making a winning noise but the fans are so cheap I would replace the motor if it don't check out. you can remove the smoke unit and can check it easily  with a Vom volt ohm meter ! the fan motor should start and run on a 1.5 volt battery if not the fan need replaced. I would check the heater resisters with a meter continuity just make sure you have the smoke unit disconnected from the ps 3 board when you use battery to check smoke fan motor. as said earlier ! if you need help would be glad to repair it for you!

also you could have a board problem. if you can figure it out an asc tech can check the engine over for you!

are you running the engine with DCS or conventional?

Alan

At most it's the smoke motor.  Trust me, the impeller does come off, it's just a friction fit.  If the smoke motor is making noise and the heater is getting hot, it's very unlikely to be a board issue.

Thank you for the replies.

Let me provide an update.

I tested two additional engines today and both had issues with smoke. The first had absolutely no smoke output. The second had smoke but nothing coming out of the stack, so likely the motor was not functioning. These engines are lightly used. I have 25 engines and just two main lines, so time between usage can be expected.

Alan, if I were to send them to you for repair would I need to send the 3 complete engines or could I just send the smoke units? Cost to send 3 engines is prohibitive.

Alternatively, can you or someone provide contact information for new replacement smoke units?

Regards,

Bill

Again, it's not necessarily the smoke unit, so without actually seeing what is wrong, it would be silly to take them apart and send pieces.  Before you start shotgunning the issue and just start replacing parts, it's really best to actually determine which parts need replacing!

Hi GRJ

How would you proceed to resolve this specific issue with 3 locomotives?

From my end and based on experience, cost to mail round trip is $60 per complete engine. This is before parts and labor costs. Can just the smoke units be sent? This would be significantly cheaper. Please provide your recommendation.

I would like to a constructive point. On January 19 I posted to this forum, under the title FMEA tool usage,  asking if anyone was interested in creating this document for MTH equiupment. FMEA stands for Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. It details how things fail, what the effect is on the process, how it can be repaired and more.  No one responded to this post. In cases like mine, it  would be useful in diagnosing the source of the problem. Please think about this option. There are only a few who regularly post to this forum with the technical knowledge necessary to complete this task. You are one of them.

Regards,

Bill

Hi Bill i would be glad to repair them for you send me an email with your phone number and I'll call you and we can discuss what you want to do ok and about how much repair might run Ok ! my email is in my profile!

Alan

@Bill from Rochester posted:

Hi GRJ

How would you proceed to resolve this specific issue with 3 locomotives?

From my end and based on experience, cost to mail round trip is $60 per complete engine. This is before parts and labor costs. Can just the smoke units be sent? This would be significantly cheaper. Please provide your recommendation.

I would like to a constructive point. On January 19 I posted to this forum, under the title FMEA tool usage,  asking if anyone was interested in creating this document for MTH equiupment. FMEA stands for Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. It details how things fail, what the effect is on the process, how it can be repaired and more.  No one responded to this post. In cases like mine, it  would be useful in diagnosing the source of the problem. Please think about this option. There are only a few who regularly post to this forum with the technical knowledge necessary to complete this task. You are one of them.

Regards,

Bill

I'm painfully aware of what a FMEA is!  I used to design aerospace equipment, and we had to do extensive analysis of failure modes and MTBF of parts as well as the whole product!  A FMEA was part of the overall package, as the project engineer, I had a lot of involvement in it's creation.  Not a chance I want to do that for free, it's a very time intensive task even for fairly simple products.  Truthfully, designing the products was the easy part, all the back-end analysis was the largest part of the overall project.

Sadly, my process to resolve this kind of issue is to have the whole locomotive and just fix the problem.

As I said before, while it's quite possible that one or more are indeed smoke unit issues, it's just as possible it's wiring, connections, or boards.  Based on that fact, it's not productive, at least for me, to just get smoke units and try to divine if that's the issue and/or the only issue.

Hi Alan

Give me a week or so to investigate the problem from my end.

As mentioned earlier there are 3 engines with no smoke.

I fixed my 0-6-0 engine. There was a detached lead on the motor. Very thin wires, but I was able to resolder back in place and smoke production was back to normal.

On my 0-8-0 (the original in this post) I have the sound of the motor running. I disassembled and the impeller rotates freely. I checked the continuity on both heater resisters and there was continuity. The wicking material is tan, not blackened. This leads me to believe it may be a board issue.

On my 0-4-0 engine, I have been unable to determine how to remove the smoke unit. I will continue to look into this.

Once done, I will contact you by email and we can discuss how to proceed.

Thank you for volunteering to assist with the repairs,

Regards,

Bill

your welcome ! Sounds good Bill keep me in touch so I know what you want to do email me with  phone number then we can discuss all the issues ok!

Alan