Problematic Engine

[Demon09]

Hey everyone,

Recently I took apart and cleaned an old pennsylvania railroad #8203 2-4-2 steamer of mine. The engine is from around 1970 or so and had been badly abused before i acquired it. I pulled out all kinds of grease, hair and tinsel from it. It was quite a mess.

So anyway, after cleaning it up, the engine ran much quieter (though with some uncomfortable noises still) and somewhat smoother, but still has some issues with sparking on the track, and now the sound unit does not play right, it sounds muffled and weak (i think it was a "mighty sound of steam" loco but im not sure-havent been in the hobby that long) and the chuff sounds more like a car horn under water. When the unit was all gummed up the sound still worked fine but the engine ran poorly. Any suggestions on a remedy for the sound unit? (that part especially bothered me when it stopped working, because its the only one of my engines with a steam sound effect-and needless to say i loved it!)

Could it be an issue with a missing rubber traction tire? This loco only has 1 rubber boot on a main wheel, and im not sure if this is correct or not. All the wires appear to be soldered correctly as well, but i could be wrong. There was no major event that occurred that could have blown the sound board (except i notice now that when its moving, each chuff and push of the engine dims the lights on the train as if its drawing far more power than it needs and waivering off at the end...... its all very strange to me)

Thanks for any help you can offer...... I just pray that if i cant find an answer here that someone can help me fix this little engine....

[Anonymous]

Mighty Sound of Steam boards were attached to the tender frame with double stick foam tape. This stuff doesn't age well and the pins poking through the bottom of the board may be causing problems. You may want to check the tender out.

[Demon09]

I'll go do that now, because i did open the tender to clean out some dust and the foam pads were almost non existent.... so I'll probably remove as much of the foam as possible and replace it with a thick layer of electrical tape to block any conductivity between the tender and board...... Would any interference of the pins fry the board, or should it work if the pins are blocked again?

[riverrailfan]

I have one of these in a different road #. Make sure the wire that goes to the tender is not pinched between the body and chassis of the loco causing it to short. The power from the loco side comes from the center rail and could be why the lights dim on the loco. Considering that you state there is a lot of sparking, you need to clean your drive wheels and roller pickups. build up on the wheels and roller pickups will cause sparking or arcing. The sound board in the tender is also wired to the rear truck of the tender to pickup voltage from the outer rails and these wheels should be cleam along with the track. The best way to clean the wheels and rollers is with a Dremel with a wire wheel bit.
The loco only uses one traction tire. I had a friend of mine give me this loco. It was very eratic running til i found it had a groove for a traction tire that was missing causing it to tricycle when running on the track. installed a traction tire and it ran perfect.

[Demon09]

Another odd thing with it is that it sparked more after i cleaned the wheels along with the rest of the cleaning i gave the engine..... it seems that the most sparks are now coming from the metal piston arms mounted on the sides of the wheels and not from the bottom contact with the rails...... i dont know if that makes a difference though..... but i will definately double check where the wires are run from the engine and move them away from the plastic body casing too.... i cant tell if it is being pinched against the metal motor frame or not, but the insulation on the wire probably isnt good after 30 years or so....

[riverrailfan]

the side rod is what syncros the chuffing sound and smoke. The side rod is only pushing a plastic lever. the front wheel assembly is also the front mount for the drive wheel assembly and the smoke unit is grounded to the front wheel assembly. it's not a tight fit so the contact to the drive assembly is probaly not that good which is whats causing the arcing on the side rods.

[Demon09]

does anyone know where i might find an electrical diagram of this engine? i tried to block the board from the metal bottom and taped over the metal portion...... im not sure quite what happened but it doesnt seem to be producing any sound now, so I'm going to step away from it for a day before i ruin something more.... haha....so maybe tomorrow i will switch back the board to the way it was earlier and see if i can get even the weak chuff again... so any wiring diagrams would be helpful just so i can trace all the wires to and from what theyre for and everything...... I just hope im following your advice right too......

[riverrailfan]

Best thing to do is step away.
Inspect your wires going to the board as they are pretty thin and break easily.

[johnsgg1]

Demen, I have several of these engines. Below is a link to Lionel exploded view of the engine. Ensure the gounding lug is attached under the front truck assembly. this may reduce sparking if there is no other apparent cause.

http://www.lionel.com/Products/ProductNavigator/_ServiceDocuments/5499_combo.pdf

I would imagine there is a wiring diagram somewhere on the Lionel site.