Re: smoke unit replacement parts

[Scott A Smiley <sc.smiley@juno.com>]

I appreciate the discussion on the smoke unit.  I need to spend some time
researching why both of my steam railsound units stop performing the chug
parts after a short time of operation.  Any body else with this?

Scott

On Tue, 12 Mar 2002 20:13:19 -0600 "Steve Wise" <swise@aoot.com> writes:
> Hi all,
> 
> I don't know if anyone else had this problem, but I thought I'd 
> email out my
> findings.
> 
> I had some smoke units burn on out on my modern lionel steam 
> engines.  I
> like to fix things myself, so I didn't consider sending this to 
> lionel or a
> repair shop.  So I went on-line after reading Jim Barretts article 
> on smoke
> units in Run 184 of O-Gauge Railroading.  After two rounds of 
> purchases,
> I've found some part numbers that seem to be useful for ordering 
> replacement
> parts.
> 
> The parts in question are:
> 
> 1. Smoke unit top (black plastic top that fits on top of the smoke 
> chamber,
> with the smoke stack hole in it).
> 
> 2. Heating element.  This is a resister that heats up and gently 
> burns the
> liquid smoke producing that smoke that we all know and love (and 
> Adrian is
> addicted to :-).  This looks like a large resistor and the two 
> wire-ends
> poke out of the smoke unit top and connect to ground on one side and 
> your
> controller board's power on the other.   The ground side is soldered 
> to the
> outside of the smoke unit chamber.
> 
> 3. Heating element cover.  This is a woven fiberglass cover that 
> keeps the
> heating element from buring the smoke unit lining.  It is what you 
> see
> crossing the smoke stack hole when you look down in from the top.  
> It gets
> dark with use and abuse.  It disintegrates after a while and the 
> heating
> element burns up.  This all happens fairly quickly if you run an 
> engine
> without liquid smoke in the stack!
> 
> 4. Smoke unit lining.  This is a flat yellow disk that sort of looks 
> like
> yellow fiberglass insulation.  It sits in the bottom of the smoke 
> unit
> chamber and acts as a wick to pull the liquid smoke up to the 
> heating
> element.  Jim Barrett recommends putting two of these in if you 
> replace them
> as they work better at keeping the liquid smoke on the heating 
> element (thus
> keeping the element from burning out).
> 
> I found that I can order items1-3 as a single replacement part, 
> number
> 8206-11.  I think this number is standard, but I got them from Stan 
> Orr
> Train Parts (http://stanorrtrainparts.com) for $5 each.  This is 
> really all
> you need to fix a burnt out smoke unit.
> 
> Item 4 is number 671-221 and I got them for $.35/ea from Stann Orr.
> 
> Also, Jim Barrett recommends you seal the smoke unit top using 
> Permatex
> Form-A-Gasket non-hardening sealant.  You can get this at most auto 
> stores.
> He claims sealing this will improve the performance be eliminating 
> smoke
> leaks out the sides of the some unit where it joins with the the 
> smoke unit
> top.
> 
> I also have part numbers for replacing the entire unit if anyone is
> interested.
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> Stevo.
> 
> 
> ------
> TTAT members reflector.
> 

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