My Lionel ZWC needs repair.

Winger,

   Mike,  Jim Lawsan, O Gauge Jim on the OGR, fixes most ZW and KW Transformers.  He may repair the ZW-C's also, I am not sure.  I would contact him and ask him, he does seriously nice professional work.

PCRR/Dave

Parts for that are getting hard to find.  I run one for lighting with 180 bricks on all outputs.    I have two for parts.  Usually the plastic part that holds the pot goes.  Lionel makes a metal base that works great.   What is your situation?

Marty.

This one has the metal brackets. I purchased it a a  toy train auction house about a year ago. I originally turned it on after purchasing it,  but I didn't thoroughly check it out. Now there's no output. The green power light comes on and I believe after a few seconds the red light starts flashing. Which is something else new. This is a second system. Therefore I'm 99.9% sure all bricks are good. I've used the bricks on the other system.

If interested contact me via email. 

Regards,

Mike

I ran into that two times and here is what I remember.  On the right side pot is a brown wire that broke off and was hanging down finding ground.  Like I said I hit the same thing two times.  Very strange.  It might be worth knocking the top off and giving it a look.  If you already have the metal brackets, things have been moved inside and you may get lucky.

I am a fan of this unit.  Only if the people at Lionel then did it right with the metal bracket from the start.   The guys today would do that one right.  What a great replacement for the old  under powered ZW that unit was.

I'll give it a look.

Mike

Does anyone have schematics in PDF format for the ZWC?

Mike

Winger posted:

Does anyone have schematics in PDF format for the ZWC?

Lionel doesn't typically publish internal schematics, therefore they aren't available.

TRW

Marty

Pot on RH lever back by ckt board blue and purple wires are off! What is the proper connections to pot? Obviously one goes to center tap other to bottom!

Mike

Mike, I am awake for another hour.  I will crack one of my parts units and confirm for you.   Back in a few minutes.

Mike, purple in the center and blue on the bottom.

Thank you and good night.

Mike

Here is a few pics I took when I replaced the plastic retainers with new aluminum pot holders.  Hope this may help.

Jesse   TCA  12-68275

Reattached wires properly. No output on channel 1 with only 1 brick attached. I'll run more test Sunday with Multiple bricks and channel jumpers.

Regards,

Mike

Do you have any TMCC/Legacy bases on?

No this is a unit that, I was using for testing Locomotives on the bench. Probably the circuit card.

Mike

That board is not to be had at Lionel.  I know a guy who has an extra and it can not be had.   Before you give up, I am sure you have given this unit a good going over.   If the metal bases were put in, more wires may be broken.

Marty,

I was going to try and have th plastic pot bracket. ( The one holding the 2 pots ) 

made at one point. I lost the extra bracket that I had and didn't want to reopen my working ZW-C's . If you have one of those brackets even with the crack in it send it to me.

The board is repairable....to a point. The output drivers....

ss

I definitely  have a wiring diagram for this transformer. But, finding it is another issue. I will give it a look tonight.

Mike,

   Even if you get your ZW-C back on line I would use it sparingly, as you can see getting some of the parts is a night mare.  Woody has a Z4K for sale on the OGR for sale board for just over $300.00, I highly recommend the Z4K, with a side receiver or the new ZW-L.

As MartyF points out yours is not the only ZW-C that has had this problem.  I love the Lionel ZW's old and new, just not this particular one.

PCRR/Dave

Tagging on to this old post since it seems to have the ZWC experts.  I purchased one on eBay with 2 180 bricks for $275.  All outputs are right at 18 volts and properly change when the ABCD levers are moved.  The problem is the C/D levers.  Both levers will move skip with a light grind past the off/20v mark in both directions, like some gears are missing teeth or a sprocket is loose.  When I look inside, the left gear assy, pictured above in Texastrain 3rd photo, seems to be fine, gears properly aligned, not missing teeth.  If I move the levers, the visible gears seem to turn properly, no skipping or jumping over teeth.  Yet, the handles, with a minimum amount of force, will skip up or down a few hash marks.

I suspect it is a gear or something aligned in the center of the levels, just not visible.  My question is do I need to take the left side gear assembly and other components out to get to the internal C/D levers?

Thanks for any help.

Mike

Attached is a ZW-C wiring diagram (pdf file) - not sure how complete it is. I believe I found it on the Lionel Website someplace.

@MED posted:

Attached is a ZW-C wiring diagram (pdf file) - not sure how complete it is. I believe I found it on the Lionel Website someplace.

MED, this is absolutely great to have, thank you.  But my question is more mechanical in that it has more to do with physical access to the internal structure of the levers themselves.

@electric_express_200. I fixed my gear jumping by making a new plastic pot bracket which mounts the pots lower for better gear alignment.  You can see a video and the part on my website if interested.  www.jimmytrains.com

@jimmysb posted:

@electric_express_200. I fixed my gear jumping by making a new plastic pot bracket which mounts the pots lower for better gear alignment.  You can see a video and the part on my website if interested.  www.jimmytrains.com

Thanks Jimmy, this definitely sheds light on the various components which affect the handle flimsiness and skipping gears.  If only I had a 3d printer.  Have been putting it off waiting for the prices to drop and the accuracy/reliability to improve.  Looks like they are feasible now, I just need to find one suitable for making train parts.

@electric_express_200 the part is available on my website if you want to try it out. https://www.jimmytrains.com/pr...et-and-axle-bearing/

@jimmysb posted:

@electric_express_200 the part is available on my website if you want to try it out. https://www.jimmytrains.com/pr...et-and-axle-bearing/

Thanks Jimmy, actually both sides are skipping.  Were skipping, I went in and tightened the all of the screws for the various pieces in and around the gear assemblies and it's much better as long as I don't yam the handle too far in either direction.  It needs to be done, but very time consuming and I don't have a lot to spare.  I'll give it go this Christmas when I have the time off.

Many of these have blown MOSFET transistors which cause the unit to no longer reduce voltages properly. The motherboards are generally poorly made dual sided boards with traces that lift even when the transistors are properly removed making them tough to repair. In my view, these models are best avoided.

Actually, with the proper technique, it's not hard at all to replace components on this or any two-sided PCB's.  The enemy of most PCB's is excessive heat, avoid that and things will go much smoother.

To replace larger thru-hole components, I first cut them flush on both sides of the PCB, then just remove the small piece of lead that's soldered into the PCB.  This requires much less heat and thus is much less likely to damage the PCB.

I found 1 of the output transisiters had a chunk out of the case. I replaced the pair with NTE 2396. No smoke, but the A channel will not change voltage, the other 3 work normally. Any idea as to what is going on with my A channel?