Wick

??? is it cotton or fiberglass ???

Fiberglass is what you'd want.

It should. Lionel wicking is fiberglass strands.

If those have a softer center you might want to remove the woven outer part. 

Lionels most recent wicking is very soft. About the texture of cotton.

You grab a section and wad it up and stuff it in the bowl as tight as possible leaving enough room for the resistor to sink in it without bending. Making sure not to block the air inlet or smoke outlet.

While it'll work, it's not the best stuff for the job.  Years ago I was using that, I just cut the outside "husk" off and used the inner strands.  However, I moved on to braided wick that does a really good job.

For those who were asking questions yes it is fiber glass. 

How do you take this plug out so I can take out the smoke unit and replace the wick? The plug under it. 

I tried some fiberglass house insulation in a smoke unit about a year ago.  It seemed to work okay.  But since I was just temporarily messing around with the unit before I disconnected it, I wasn't able to do any more testing/evaluation of that idea.  It may actually have some potential.  I'll get back on it someday, but as usual I have plenty of other projects that need attention. 

@TheRoyalHudson988 posted:

How do you take this plug out so I can take out the smoke unit and replace the wick? The plug under it. 

You have to unsolder that ground wire and then the top lifts off.

How do I do that’s and what materials would I need to do that task? Will this help me get to the smoke unit? 

Just unsolder that bare wire, then put a flat blade screwdriver in the stack/ hole just underneath the cover and gently pry up.  You might be able to pry it off with out removing the wire.

So just pry up on the edge of this piece? 

@TheRoyalHudson988 posted:

So just pry up on the edge of this piece? 

Yes, that's the piece. Put your screwdriver in where I have the arrow drawn, and gently pry back. Use the screwdriver like a lever.

Before I do this I should use a flathead for this task right? 

Yes.

Making progress but I might have to unsolder it. I hope not because I don’t think I have the stuff to do that. 

Never mind the soldering that’s as close as I can go. But it’s severe I can replace the wick. 

I can see why you guy said it wasn’t the best stuff. Ever since I switched it sometimes runs but sometimes just cuts off randomly. The Lionel transformer green light just blinks now. What happned?

You didn't mess with the resistor, right?  That cap is metal correct? If so, make sure the wire with the cloth insulation on it is protecting the resistor lead from touching the metal cap. The cloth insulation should go into the hole a bit.  It may have been moved when you were working in there. Sounds like the hot side of the resistor is shorting out to the body of the smoke unit.   You can also try unplugging that white plug and see if the problem goes away.

I’m not sure what your taking about you would have to show me a picture. It’s my first time fixing something like this. I hope I didn’t hit something else. 

So one of these three things could be messed up and making my engine cut off? Ok so it might be the plug since I’m using actual fiberglass. I’m not sure because that plug is for the lightbulb.

Forget the plug.  I glanced at it and mistook it for the smoke unit wire.

Try the other things.  Mainly check the black / cloth wire for any shorting out.

I’ll take a look today. 

Ok so the problem is when I take the screws out of the engine that hold the shell. It runs fine. But when I put the screws back in, it shorts out.  This is it with no screws.

Here it is with screws in it’ll some times work but it might cut out. 

Could it be this too?

Whew! For a minute I thought the thread was about John Wick. But seriously, has anyone used Tiki torch wick in an MTH smoke unit?

No but I’m using this in a Lionel unit and I think I hit something while doing so. But overall I got it to smoke pretty good. Just when you turn off the smoke unit it sometimes still puffs. But that’s just me I guess. 

@TheRoyalHudson988 posted:

Here it is with screws in it’ll some times work but it might cut out. 

Try disconnecting the smoke unit wire and see if that clears it up.