I have a christmas story 0-8-0. I just changed the smoke resistor and noticed vast amounts of smoke pushing past the smoke piston. The units holes are clear to the smoke chamber. Any ideas?
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there should be a check ball on the piston, make sure it is there and free
check ball? How big?
small, should be in top of piston if it has one
Do you mean it's puffing out of the bottom of the loco?
Make sure the wick\batting is not covering the air holes inside of the smoke unit.
They are clear. any other idea.
on these puffer type units this is a normal condition, referred to as steam chest smoke. because the smoker has just been rebuilt it is probably putting out a lot of smoke so the steam chest smoke is more noticeable. I wouldn't worry unless you are not getting smoke through the stack also.
There are usually one or two little ball bearings in the piston, they have a little keeper that holds them in place. They open as the piston goes down to allow are to flow through and then are closed on the upstroke. If they get gummed up, the smoke gets pulled down into the locomotive body. The modern ones with the plastic piston usually have two.
Once you have the piston in your hand, it should be obvious.
Here is the piston from starter set 0-8-0.....no bearings?
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The keeper and bearings go into the top of that piston. The bearings drop into the big holes, and the small hole is for the pin on the keeper that holds them in place.
Rotate the puffer piston so that the holes are not aligned with the smoke unit holes. Those are on the sides relative to the engine. So, try the puffer holes front to rear aligned.
Originally Posted by shawn:
They are clear. any other idea.
if the balls are not in there then there is your problem. the balls act as a check on the upswing, without them the smoke just passes through and comes out the bottom more than it should.
Are the holes in the piston open or sealed closed? I think this version does not use the ball bearing check valve.
yes, they are closed....sealed
That's probably why you see more smoke down there. There is no air pressure relief on the downstroke, so it sucks the smoke down and out the bottom.
John,
I must agree with you. I called lionel, today. The tech that repairs the starter sets wasn't in ,today. Ihave to see if this can be replaced with the one with the bearings....
I don't see why it wouldn't be a drop-in replacement, I'm pretty sure those solid ones are the same diameter.
