Is it going to be hard or expensive to find a replacement original smoke pellet smoke unit for a postwar #681 S-2 Turbine or is it going to be easier to replace it with a newer fluid run smoke unit?
ID GO WITH THE FLUID TYPE MUCH EASIER TO FIND
The fluid is also less expensive to use.
You can purchase an entire replacement smoke unit, or individual components to repair your existing one.
A replacement heater runs about $8.00A replacement complete smoke unit runs about $20 to $25, depending on the style.A replacement complete liquid smole unit runs about $15.
Smoke pellets are being manufactured, and run around $15 per bottle. I don't care for liquid smoke. I don't want to breath vaporized oil, or have it deposited on everything in my train room or house. I'd rather have the fine dust that pellet type smoke becomes.
Replace any failed components with original or original style.
The 681 will work perfectly with pellets or liquid. Why limit yourself to just liquid?
Rob
What your NOT being told here is if you convert to a liquid only type unit you will then have to keep fluid in it all the time(unless you add a switch ), which means its smoking all the time, or the unit will burn out. I would fix the original pellet unit and you can use either pellets or fluid.
Roger
The pureist part of me wants to keep the pellet but wasn't sure how hard it was going to be to find plus i haven't been able to come up with a part number on it i ordered the manual for Lionel stuff from 45-69 but almost a week later it still hasn't gotten here and every manual i see online for the S-2 Turbine is a newer version and has all the circuit boards in it. It's prob going to be the whole smoke unit since it looks like it can't be taken apart. Don't know what's not working in it other then it didn't heat up since my dad and uncle would shove 3-4 pellets in the thing each time when younger tried cleaning it out a little and once i cleared some of the resadue the whole train started to short on the track. Cut the wire going to the smoke unit and the train atleast runs now. Again thanks for the info i didn't know the pellet units could run both then that's the way i'm going to go. Anyone know if these pellets go bad also? I've got about 3 jars of pellets but all are from the 70's or older.
All my S-2 (671 681 2020 & 682) are set up for the pellets but I use liquid in them. It won't hurt them. But if you have pellets go with that. When you run out use the liquid.
Do you know that you can get new pellets here? http://www.trainz.com/p-105972-trainz-sp-smoke-pellets-for-lionel-trains-new.aspx?CAWELAID=370871131
Bob Nelson
Fox,
Avoid the liquid conversion kit like the plague. The original and repro pellet heaters work just as well with liquid, if not better than the liquid conversion. Plus, the pellets heaters won't burn out like the liquid heaters do the second they become dry. The part number for the complete pellet unit is 671-170, and the heater is 671-225.
The 59 year old original pellet unit on my 2046 is still going strong, the last 20 years on liquid. It smokes fairly well as long as I am hauling a longer heavier consist at around 12 V on the ZW.
IF IT WON'T COME LOOSE BY TAPPING ON IT, DON'T TRY TO FORCE IT. USE A BIGGER HAMMER.
Thanks for the part numbers Green97 i can atleast start to track them down. Like i said i'm *** i ordered that book a week ago now and it's still not here and i need it for a few other cars i have also. Again i wanted to keep it all original since this train has family history but didn't know how hard to find or expensive it would be to find pellet smoke units for it. Also figured i'd have to choose between one or the other didn't know the older units would handle both. My smoke unit looks brand new on the outside like i said my dad and most likely more my uncle didn't do it any favors when they consistantly would shove 3 or more pellets in at a time. At xmas time my uncle told me stories how he'd do that and or race it full speed into the turns trying to get it to jump the track. At xmas he's the one who noticed the smoke wasn't working when he kept adding pellets and nothing happened. I'm surprised the train is in as good of shape as it is with the stuff my uncle told me he did to it. I've prob got alot more work to do on it still. Only got it up and running last Aug after it spent 25+ year boxed up took alot of hours to get it running decent again but think it prob could run better then it doe now i have a TW transformer but only a 4'x8' setup and to keep it running at a constant speed around the table with the engine,tender, box car, oil car and caboos i have to keep it at between 14-16 V's. Again thanks for the help from everyone.
If you are good at soldering with the old pellet heater you can unwrap 1 or 2 coils of wire and it gets hotter at lower voltage. I forget if it was in Greenberg's repair manual where it tells you how to do it. But I did it to all my Postwar smoke unites and it produces alot more smoke. Never tried it with pellets, I only have been using liquid.
servoguyIf you have to run the engine on 14-16 volts with that short train, I think you better take the engine apart and lube it. The lube points for the motor can only be reached by taking the engine apart. It comes apart very easily. The engine should pull that short train at 9-10 volts. Make sure you lube the connecting rods as they are used to transmit power to the front 3 sets of drivers. Lube the worm gear and also put some oil into the motor. There is a hole on the top of the housing for oiling the motor bearings. Lube all the axle bearings and the front and rear trucks. Lube the pick up rollers. Bruce Baker
That was my thought. My 2046 is pulling the heavy 2046W tender, 8 cars, and a caboose at 10 volts albeit at a lower speed while my buddy's 671RR S2 Turbine (like Fox' 682) will do the same. That includes a couple of the heavier postwar cars.....operating milk car and the Evans auto loader. And the trains are moving at a good clip at 12V.
Clean track and pickup rollers too. Maybe the cars are the drag element? Need cleaning and lube too.
Jack
Like i said above it was put away for 25 years that thing was dry when i first got it back out last Aug oiled it some which got it working i figured i'd try and do a break in with it oiling little by little till it soaks in but every time i fix one problem with it some thing else on the train breaks weather it's the tender, Search light car or the Caboos. When i took this apart to look at the smoke unit the soter point for the head lamp broke off. Always figured i'd have to go back in and re oil but wasn't sure if the power was even all around the track also i have to lock ons on opposite ends plus never looked to see if the transformer needed cleaning also. Was out today and ran across some post war and eairly modern era engines for $20 each so bought those but it looks like i'm going to have to do clean and oil work on those too.
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