What does everyone do to replace missing or broken resistor wires for the whistle disk/diodes I have a few otherwise working nice looking transformers but the resistor wires are missing, broken or just in very bad shape. Have a couple of KW, ZW and 1044 and 1 1033 they all work and look good except for the resistor wire. What can I use as a replacement ?
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Ed,
This topic came up just last month. Click on this link to go there:
Lionel KW Transformer Rebuild | Corvette Rob
BTW -- 'Search' is your friend. To find it I simply typed "resistor wire" in the 'Exact Phrase' box on the search page and hit 'Enter'.
Mike
From what I can find out from reding some of the other post related to the resistor wires for both the whistle control and the short curcuit light would be a 10watt for the short curcuit light and 20 or 30 watt for the whistle. Those would be for across the board for any of the transformers that require the resistor wires for either the short curcuit light or whistle. This is when NOT using the zenor diode for the whistle control. Dose this seem correct ?
Kent at Tranz4mr's is an excellent rebuilder that generously supplies instructions for replacing the diodes in ZW and KW transformers.
Kent also sells well rebuild transformers for competitive prices with new rollers, cords, whistle diodes, etc.
Oh yes I have used his instructions many times. The problem that I have is the short circuit resistor wire and the whistle control resistance wire. I have a beautiful KW that I have rebuilt. Unfortunately I don’t have the resistance wire for the short circuit light. Also I have a very nice 1044 but the whistle resistance wire is toast. So what I would like to know are viable replacement components. For those items. I don’t want to start throwing resistors at them hoping something sticks and risk the transformers.
Lose the lamp resistor wire and put an 18V bulb in the overload lamp, problem solved.
For your 1044, I believe it's going to be the same as this already posted 1033 upgrade: Diode Conversion For Lionel 1033
Should be a simple job.
Here's the 1033, note how similar it is. 
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