E-unit problems

[Anonymous]

Help! I have a Lionel 2379 Rio Grande ABA that is having e-unit trouble. It will work periodically but often will just die on the track. Also, there is sparking visible from the e-unit itself. Is there anywhere that I can get a rebuilt or new e-unit? Any help would be appreciated.

[lionelsoni]

You may be able to repair the one you have. See http://pictures.olsenstoy.com/cd/b123/001306.pdf

It sounds like the wiper fingers are not making good contact with the drum. The drum could be dirty, the fingers worn or just not pressing hard enough against the drum. You can take it apart, clean the drum, and retension the wipers. If they are completely worn out, you can get replacements for just that part. The fingers are straight but with a little semicircle bent into the end where they touch the drum. When they wear through, half of that semicircle falls off. However, you can flatten the end of a worn-out finger a little to get a new contact surface on the middle of the quarter-circle that is left and bend the whole finger toward the drum a little to restore the contact pressure.

The hard part is getting it back together. You have to get both contact assemblies and the drum back into the side pieces pretty much at the same time. That just requires a lot of patience and luck.

You can get replacement units and parts from most of the parts places, but you might as well try to fix the one you have first--you have nothing to lose if it doesn't work now!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice.
Have a very Merry Christmas!