Question on Smoke Unit

I had that on a diesel...forget which but I did the Mike R smoke unit rebuild which is shown in one of the Lionel videos. The main help I think was to increase the size of the air inlet hole. I used the new batting...the resistor was fine. Smokes great now.

I don't remember it being that way a year ago, but it was just recently. Maybe the fan got slower.

If this was used, the previous owner could have allowed the batting to char.  Worth inspecting the smoke unit.  You could also try it in TMCC mode, since this use an ACREG.  Other have reported a bad ACREG, that did not work in Legacy mode but did work in TMCC.   G

also, was it only oozing out when not in motion or also when in motion?

Legacy diesels and steam engines smoke less heavily when stopped and smoke more when in motion.  Just something to keep in mind.

Hey GGG, I'm still in my internship with these trains.  What is an ACREG ??

In answer to your question jrmetz, it was oozing out on a low speed setting.  Once the train started to pick up speed there wasn't any indication of smoke at all.  The previous owner on ebay said the train did a lot of shelf time, I'm not sure if I let it run long enough on its return to life, so to speak.

The AC reg is a device that uses the TMCC serial data to control the smoke unit.  If it goes bad the heating element won't get much power and smoke less.  So the first step is to inspect the smoke unit and see if it needs to be rebuilt.  If the smoke unit is fine, we need to start taking electrical measurements to see if it is getting the right amount of power, or maybe the smoke fan isn't turning.  If the smoke fan is bad, I am sure the batting is charred also.  G

On mine, a gp30 (I just looked), the smoke was really heavy and thick but just rolled out over the top of the engine coating it with condensed smoke fluid. After I made the hole bigger, the smoke is still very thick but flows up away from the engine.

I guess if the fan wasn't properly fast, the smoke would be heavier and thick.

Also I was concerned as to the direction of the fan. I read that there was a direction with the convex side of the blades forward but that Lionel had often said it didn't matter much. I think mine are going concave forward which may not be by design.

Hi,

I'm not an expert but if you read back through some of the Lionel smoke problems here on the forum, you'll get a better feel for how frequently they act up.  

If you really want it to work properly and don't want to do it yourself there are guys here that'll fix it right.  There are upgrades that greatly improve the original output.

Good luck, John 

Was wondering if the motor is running at all on this smoke unit.

i have found that when sitting on shelf the oils get in to the motor brushes.

some times it just takes turning the fan blades with a tooth pick and the motor starts working fine. Then there no oozing or light smoke coming out the top.

 Have had this too many times with coustoomers engines.

hope this helps

Thanks everyone for their input. I will investigate and see what I can discover.

I forgot to mention, you might try blowing down the stack a few times.  I've had the fan start up with a few puffs.