TMCC and Smoke

Have you tried a "service" , cleaned the elements and changed the wick? I would start there before buying new units.

MIKE

You just need to service them and they will be good as new. Remove the shell, take off the smoke unit cover, remove the sleeve from the heating element, carefully clean the resistor/replace if neccessary, enlarge intake hole in pcb, stuff with rope style wick. Re-assemble.

You should find they smoke better than ever after the tune up.

Doug is right, there's absolutely no reason to replace the smoke units, they probably just need new wick and a tune-up.

After you take the wicking off the resistor, I have sprayed the bare resistor with WD-40 which cleans off the gunk and lightly, gently clean it with a toothbrush or wire brush. Lightly, gently so you do NOT break the Nichome wire.

The wd-40 will burn off once you use the units.

When you're cleaning off exposed wirewound resistors, make sure you go in line with the turns, not perpendicular to them to avoid damage.  I use a Dremel wire wheel and gently wisk the crud away.

I am sorry I forgot to mention I did all of the above.  It seems the fans on the units are not blowing at top speed no matter how much juice I give them.  I reset the smoke units with the remote commands and the units are on but not blowing hard at all.  I have rebuilt many smoke units but these ones I just cannot figure out.

Did you replace the motor?  How about checking the motor voltage, maybe the regulator circuit is failing?  There's very little that can go wrong with the stock 27 ohm smoke unit in those, and they're easy to fix.

Well they don't have to blow "hard". If the resistor is generating a lot of smoke, the fan will move it out. Are you sure its generating a lot of smoke. Pix? Video? 

I didn't replace the motors and I have no idea how much power the motors should draw.  If I keep my finger on the smoke boost button it will smoke normal but as soon as I let off it the smoke dwindles to practically zero.

Are you running them in conventional or command mode. Usually folks run command equipped engines at a higher voltage causing the smoke units to run hotter. 27 ohm resistors do not produce enough smoke at a lower voltage.

Ted, if he's hitting the "boost" switch for smoke, my guess is he's running command.

If you can do the boost and get more smoke, it's not the motors, that doesn't change their speed.  My RX for these issues is a 20 ohm resistor and better wick, try the Lionel braided wick fluffed up like Mike's Lionel video indicates.

Yes I am running in command mode always.  I have rebuilt both smoke units with Lionel wicking as the video instructed but I did not change the resistors.  Does Lionel offer 20 ohm resistors?

No you need to buy them from an electronic distributer or go with an MTH 16ohm.  G

Are the fan motors turning in the right direction? Remember that a number of them were wired backwards.

I didn't know that they could be wired backwards so I will switch them around and see what I get. I also have plenty of MTH resistors.  Wouldn't the inside of the locomotive fill with smoke if the motor is wired backwards?

Just make sure the motor is turning CW, not CCW when viewed from the top.