Decided to run my VL Centipede set after some two years of shelf display. On startup all four smoke unit fan motors sounded like screeching cats, which I put down to smoke fluid having fouled them. I intended to let the set run for a while to see if that cured the noise but in short order three blinks from the rear cab meant a fan motor problem in the #1 smoke unit so I resigned myself to servicing all of them.
As I don't have four spare motors I went to the Lionel replacement parts site to see what are the part numbers. I've serviced these engines and have seen the parts pages before but never seen in them or indeed any other exploded parts illustration reference to an "optional" smoke unit part, which is #3 and is listed as a "heat shield/smoke reservoir/(optional)" Here it is:
This is the dismantled smoke unit and it's not completely clear to me how this part fits in (at least in such a way as not to block the channel between the impeller chamber and the reservoir) but it is clear that it wasn't in these units as they came from the factory:
I haven't seen any reference to a part of this kind being used in these plastic bowl Legacy smoke units. I have seen some references to impellers melting in plastic dual chamber Legacy smoke units but this doesn't appear to be a part designed to prevent that. What gives? (If anyone knows.)
While servicing the unit, which has never been a great smoker, I noticed something odd about the fan motor wiring as you can just make out in the next photo:
I always thought that the white dot on the bottom of these fan motors designates the positive terminal. However both of the smoke units had the wiring reversed, or so it appeared. I could not be sure whether these motors were running in reverse (the impeller turns too fast for my eyesight) so I rigged up this using an old Lionel accessory piece:
Using this even I could see that the motors as wired were running counterclockwise i.e. backwards. I've never been sure whether that makes a lot of difference in smoke output or is really a fan noise reduction measure given the shape of the impellers (curved opposite the direction they are meant to turn).
I've reassembled one of the units with a new fan motor and the wiring corrected. No cat screeches now and a reasonable smoke volume. But as I am short of new fan motors I'll need to order some and I am wondering about getting the "optional" heat shields too - once I know what they are for! (This is one of those questions I would have asked Mike Reagan in the past - and got an incredibly prompt answer, probably laced with his own brand of humor.)
