I just picked up a nice ZW Type R transformer at an estate sale, It needs new rollers and a cord. I have replaced parts and cords on several other transformers, but this is my first ZW.
I have found many posts about replacing the rollers, but haven't seen any directions on the steps for replacing the cord. I have a copy of Greenbergs, but I am still not sure what I need to remove to get to the cord, which is attached on the bottom of the coil. I have removed the top case, and the four screws holding the bottom plate onto the case and into the coil supports. Everything still seems firmly attached as this point. Now what?
Thanks for any help or pointing me in the right direction.
Funny you should start this thread; I just changed the cord on my ZW(R) yesterday. It was also the first power cord I had ever changed on a Lionel transformer.
Naturally, the first thing you need to do is unplug the transformer. If the cord id bad, go ahead and cut the end off while you are at, so you're not tempted to use it if you don't get to the replacement right away. Also determinate all the low voltage wiring, as if there is another transformer hooked up to the same wiring it could backfeed the ZW and place 120 volts on a cord that isn't plugged in.
Now that we have the safety out of the way, if you remove the front coil support, (let's call the back the side with the terminal posts), on the right side of the coil is the two leads coming from the power cord. I kinda wedged the support under the coil to lift it up a bit to get a better vantage point for my 30 watt soldering pencil.
Also, before you cut the old one up, I would get a measurement of where the strain relief knot is in relation to where they get soldered on at. Since my fingers are short and fat, I cut the old cord a few inches before it entered into the transformer and taped the new cord to it and used it to pull the new cord into position.
Make sure that you have the new cord routed properly before you reassemble, as there is not a lot of room between the rightmost throttle's (A?) wiper arm and the 120 volt wiring. Seems like they could have done something different there...
I thought there use to be a rule with CTT about discussing the 120v wiring, but I didn't see anything mentioned in the sticky at the top of this forum. If there is and I missed it, I apologize and will not repost this info if it is deleted.
Hope this helps,
J White
Thanks for the tip. I didn't realize the coil supports came out so easily. I removed the front support as you suggested, supported the coil, and changed the cord in about 5 min. I had good access to get my soldering iron on the leads, as they were quite accessible with the front support out of the way.
Plugged in the ZW for the first time and all works great. Thanks again.
Glad it worked out.Thanks for the update!
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