K-Line Mikado - A problem

[Buckeye Riveter]

My C&O K-Line Mikado has run flawlessly for a year and one half. Great engine, great Railsounds, and TMCC.

Suddenly, it seems to cut out the chug sound and smoke after just a short run on the layout.

I have reset the engine twice using the instructions in the manual . From my research, it appears to be a short (loose wire?) to the smoke unit.

Any other thoughts to the cause? At this point I am ready to pack it up and send it to K-Line for repairs unless someone knows something else that I should check.

[Anonymous]

I believe your engine hasa a microswitch to trigger the soun chip and the smoke unit by grounding a signal wire. If the lever that depresses the switch pin does not travel far enough it will not trigger the switch.

Pull the shell off and slightly bend the end of the trigger lever towards the switch actuating pin. This has worked for me on a couple of engines.

Tony

[Anonymous]

I have the same engine and this happened to me. I found out that I put in one drop too much smoke fluid and it ran over the air holes and put fluid on the puffing piston. I took it apart and cleaned the piston and the inside of the piston cylinder.
To do it right you should remove the smoke cap and take it off, take out the wick and soak it in acetone. This will get to wick back to normal if it is not burned black. If that is the case get a new one and put it in. Put it back together and mine is running fine again
If the piston gets stuck in the unit the plunger can;t make a complete stroke and the cherry switch does not get activated.
Dave Roxin.

[Buckeye Riveter]

Both of the above suggestions made me think about this situation some more, so I ran upstairs (hobbled) and turned on the layout. Used the controller to turn on the Mikado, but then I used the AUX 8 button to turn off the smoke. It ran fine with the sound in sync. Now I think just some cleaning of the smoke piston may just be the ticket.

Thank you for the help.