Thanks to *** Teal and CTT!

[MartyE]

Just finished my first smoke unit repair based on ***'s article. Mucho improvement. My fan was spinning CCwise so I reversed the leads. Much better air flow and a noticable increase in smoke volume! These type of articles are great and I'd love to see more of 'em.

[csxt30]

I think that was a great article also. I hope everyone that does this might post the eng. they did it too. My buddy has a Mowhawk that i originally purchased new from Train America, when they sold Lionel in their retail store, & had to send it back for smoke problems, & now it's smoke system is intermittant again. Maybe it's one we can do that fix on. Thanks, John

[MartyE]

Mine was the UP SD40 Desert Victory.

[laz 57]

Thanks *** TEAL, fixed all my SD80s.
laz57

[MartyE]

Yeah I did my LM T-1 last night. It's amazing how many are wired incorrectly.

[ChiefEagles]

Thanks Marty for the pictures of the wiring on the speakers. Will work on those next. Did one SD80 yesterday PM. "Chunked" the sleeve and repacked with pink insulation. All fans turning the right direction. Opened them up and cleaned the wick and sleeves first on all diesels. Now, went back and took the sleve off and it works even better [Buckeye had already done this]. Now to go back and do all the others with no sleve.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all of the kind words.

This type of problem is rare in toy trains. The design was initally good but follow-up by the design staff, manufacturing or whomever never happened and Lionel got a bad rep.

There was a comment that more of these type of articles are needed. Seeing that they are rare I'm having a hard time thinking of something to write about.

If you have specific thoughts on what's needed or something that would be of interest to you please let CTT (Neil) know and if I can help I'll write about it. I keep a written record on every engine I fix or convert and my count is approaching 2,000 items from every manufacturer.

Thanks again,

*** Teal

[ChiefEagles]

Marty gave me the picture for speaker phasing. Suppose they are in phase but you need more sound. Is there a simple way to "upgrade" volume or get more sound out of the existing units?

[MartyE]

Well short of tweeking the physical volume control anf the TMCC controlled volume I'm not sure what else to try.

[Anonymous]

You can help the speakers perform better if you use a cover over the back side of the speaker that's sealed. How to do this depends on the amount of room you have.

Williams makes a plastic part that the speaker mounts in and then it is mounted to the floor of the chassis. MTH makes a small plastic part that they use to cover speakers in some set engines. MTH also made cardboard tubes with a cardboard cover for some PS1 engines. I use one of these for whatever speaker I'm trying to increase the output on. Sometimes I've had to put the plastic parts in a lathe and cut them down to make them fit.

After you get the part to fit over the back of the speaker and the wires, you will need to seal it to the speaker. The whole idea is to make sure the speaker cone does the job it was designed to do. I use RTV clear silacone sealer or gasket maker.

The end result is a deeper and richer sound.

Hope this helps,

*** Teal

[lionelsoni]

That cover is called a baffle. Its purpose is to keep the sound from the back of the speaker from cancelling the sound from the front. When the speaker is mounted in a hole in the shell or floor, the entire unit tends to make a pretty good baffle. Putting a cover over the back of the speaker that encloses too small a volume of air tends to augment the stiffness of the cone, raising its resonant frequency and cutting off some of the bass. So any enclosure should be as large as the space will allow.

[ChiefEagles]

Thanks and I'll experiment. Speker housing is easily removed and replaced.