You're welcome! I was hoping you'd look in again.
Dallee's a good one to keep in mind just the same, in case you have problems with other engines.
Thanks for the response but it had other problems so I just let the repair guy keep it for parts since he couldn't get the part he needed to fix it and because of that he didn't charge me for the labor he put into it. No more LionChiefs for me. That's a definite. The crazy thing is I have piece of track that I could have plugged a standard transformer into but if diesel was designed to operate with just the remote, what good was that. Anyhow, appreciate your help.
Thanks for getting back to us George! Yeah I'll tell you, I don't like the idea of LionChief with no conventional option at all. I do have a LionChief Plus locomotive, a Susquehanna GP20 and it's a good runner, no problems at all so far. I tried the LionChief remote it came with once just to see what it was like. OK, but nothing to get excited about in my opinion, so when I run the GP20 it's in conventional mode.
Assuming it's a bad board ( Is that what you were told?) and everything else is good you can probably get it running again as a conventional control engine with a Dallee Electronics drop-in replacement board. I've done it myself on another engine and it's not hard to do, the replacement board comes with easy to understand instructions. Your Lionel sound board may still work as a stand-alone but I'm just guessing on that.
Here's the Dallee website:
https://www.dallee.com Look under "e-units."
Well, it's been a month since I posted my problem regarding my LionChief diesel and because you guys did your best I thought I'd let you know the latest and the last. I had a pro look at it and he diagnosed that it was faulty when it came from the factory, moreover the part to fix it is unavailable. As for Lionel customer service they were no help at all. I don't believe I'll be buying anymore LionChief products in the future. Pretty sad when you get a defective locomotive and you just have to eat your loss.
KRM You got me there. The remote has to be on with good battieries and then the engine should read it then stop chirping. With the dial in the center nutural position. It should make no sounds if the sound button on the bottom is in the off position. It should not move. Then when you move the dial it should move the train. It almost seems like the remote is not paired to the engine. Without a video of the problem it is going to be hard to help you much more? Maybe watch these videos and it may help. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=how+to+operate+LionChief+remote&&view=detail&mid=6B8C19A086A4E9F52BFA6B8C19A086A4E9F52BFA&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dhow%2Bto%2Boperate%2BLionChief%2Bremote%26FORM%3DHDRSC3 https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=how+to+operate+LionChief+remote&&view=detail&mid=6B8C19A086A4E9F52BFA6B8C19A086A4E9F52BFA&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dhow%2Bto%2Boperate%2BLionChief%2Bremote%26FORM%3DHDRSC3
You got me there. The remote has to be on with good battieries and then the engine should read it then stop chirping.
With the dial in the center nutural position. It should make no sounds if the sound button on the bottom is in the off position. It should not move. Then when you move the dial it should move the train. It almost seems like the remote is not paired to the engine. Without a video of the problem it is going to be hard to help you much more?
Maybe watch these videos and it may help.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=how+to+operate+LionChief+remote&&view=detail&mid=6B8C19A086A4E9F52BFA6B8C19A086A4E9F52BFA&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dhow%2Bto%2Boperate%2BLionChief%2Bremote%26FORM%3DHDRSC3
Joined 1-21-2011 TCA 13-68614
Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL.
So when you say turn on the remote do you mean just leave it on for a while. I've done that and it doesn't change a thing plus the longer I leave the engine on the track with the back wheels, the more it makes a grinding sound -- which I'm sure is not good. If I'm missing something let me know.
You're very welcome George, and try KRM's suggestions if you haven't done so already. As you've seen he owns one, so he's got the experience.
Flintlock76 That box that plugs into the wall outlet is the power pack all right. All it's supposed to do is energize the track and nothing more. Your controls are all in the remote. What you've described, wheels spinning, idle mode issues, and a chirping sound with no diesel engine sounds makes me think you've got a circuit board problem. I know your engine's only about a year old but that's the thing with circuit boards, they can last for 20 years or more or blow tomorrow, you just never know. Trust me on that one, I spent 30 years working on copiers and had to deal with blown boards more times than I care to remember! I looked at that parts catalog sheet rrswede linked and wouldn't you know it, the board it looks like you're going to need, Part 9, isn't listed. That tells me there's probably some proprietory stuff on that board Lionel doesn't want anyone to know about, or the replacement board has to be tailored to your engine and remote. If that's the case they're not going to send a board out to just anyone. Is there a hobby shop that's an authorized Lionel service center in your area? They should be able to handle it. If not, the thing's probably going to have to go back to Lionel for repair, and probably with the remote. That's all I can think of unless someone has any better ideas.
That box that plugs into the wall outlet is the power pack all right. All it's supposed to do is energize the track and nothing more. Your controls are all in the remote.
What you've described, wheels spinning, idle mode issues, and a chirping sound with no diesel engine sounds makes me think you've got a circuit board problem. I know your engine's only about a year old but that's the thing with circuit boards, they can last for 20 years or more or blow tomorrow, you just never know. Trust me on that one, I spent 30 years working on copiers and had to deal with blown boards more times than I care to remember!
I looked at that parts catalog sheet rrswede linked and wouldn't you know it, the board it looks like you're going to need, Part 9, isn't listed. That tells me there's probably some proprietory stuff on that board Lionel doesn't want anyone to know about, or the replacement board has to be tailored to your engine and remote. If that's the case they're not going to send a board out to just anyone.
Is there a hobby shop that's an authorized Lionel service center in your area? They should be able to handle it. If not, the thing's probably going to have to go back to Lionel for repair, and probably with the remote.
That's all I can think of unless someone has any better ideas.
Very Odd, our 3782 works just fine,,,,,,,,,but many other China Lionel trains have been a real bummer. We run ours on a ZW set to 18 volts.
Turn on the remote!!!!!
I don't think you need to do anything yet!!! Chill and work it down. Here is the Tier 4 unit,
https://www.lionelsupport.com/ReplacementParts/index.cfm?doAction=productPartFilter&number=6-84733&productID=6C6D071E-C608-4ED2-8B5E-B89412DA7B16
One thing about the 3782 is it is very light and not made to pull a long consist. It is a starter set... I have been happy with how ours works but then those guys in China love their Tiger beer so who knows what they feel like the day after. I know it almost droped me out drinking that stuff over there. As soon as I got ours I knew it would need weight to pull a large consite. ( never have done that, pulls good for what it is) My only thought is if the wheels are spinning back off the load???
The chirping sound with power up, is it looking for the remote, I would have to look to see if it can run on transformer only??? I would think so but I don't think I have tried that. At any point if that is true it will not respond to transformer control running on a power pack so you can't run it but just full power off the power pack so the wheels will be at full 18 volts. The only switch on the bottom I see is for sound on-off, nothing for remote -transformer like the LionChief Plus units so maybe you got to run the remote. Not sure but will look ???
At the end of the day,,,I would say, turn on the remote!
Best of luck to you!
Some of my out of the box thoughts.
Flintlock76 For wheel cleaning what works pretty well for me is a Q-Tip soaked with rubbing alcohol. It will probably take several Q-Tips per wheel but hey, they're cheap enough. For some reason or another wheels on current production engines do seem to dirty up more than the old post-wars did. If the set was supposed to come with a wall power pack but didn't what are you using for track power?
For wheel cleaning what works pretty well for me is a Q-Tip soaked with rubbing alcohol. It will probably take several Q-Tips per wheel but hey, they're cheap enough. For some reason or another wheels on current production engines do seem to dirty up more than the old post-wars did.
If the set was supposed to come with a wall power pack but didn't what are you using for track power?
Well, the manual I have says it's supposed to run from a wall pack but I didn't get one. It didn't come with the set. I do have a track section where I could plug it in if I did. I can try the cleaning suggestion. What should I use? As for worn out traction tires, the set is just over one year old and I haven't run it enough to wear anything out. I confess I'm baffled. One day it was working and then the next it wasn't. I do appreciate this help. Thanks, guys.
Sounds like the front motor is not running. Your gonna have to figure out why.
"IT's GOOD TO BE THE KING",by Mel Brooks
Charter Member- Tardis Train Crew (TTC) - Detroit3railers- Detroit Historical society Glancy Modular trains- Charter member BTTS
Let me ask some more questions, is it LionChief ONLY, or LionChief+? If it's the "Plus" version how does it work with conventional control?
Dang, I wish I was there looking over your shoulder!
I will say this, if nothing works, remote or conventional, you may have a circuit board problem or a motor problem.
I wish that parts diagram gave the quantities of parts used in the engine. I'm assuming it's twin-motored since they're only showing one motor and one truck. Or maybe not, it's too vague.
Swede had a good idea, check for a worn-out traction tire, but if you've got a twin-motored unit I suspect one of the motors isn't turning so the good motor has to fight a dead truck assembly.
One more thing. Check the wheels for any kind of built-up dirt or gunk. One of my Lionel diesels started acting crazy and that's what the cause was, dirty wheels. I gave the wheels and pick-ups a good cleaning and the problem was solved.
Additional questions, George.
1) Were more than the rear wheels of the truck ever driven?
2) Are you missing the traction tire on one of the rear wheels?
3) Does the photo in the following link depict your locomotive?
swede
Flintlock76 Two questions for you: 1) Is it a twin motored diesel? I couldn't find that information when I looked in the service manual. I'm guessing it's not. 2) Does it work normally with the remote turned ON? It does not run even with the remote turned on. It did up until I stared having this problem. I would plug the pin in, get power to the rails, turn on the remote and it would run. Now when I plug in the pin and there's power all it does spin the back wheels rapidly but no movement.
Two questions for you:
1) Is it a twin motored diesel? I couldn't find that information when I looked in the service manual. I'm guessing it's not.
2) Does it work normally with the remote turned ON?
1) Is it a twin motored diesel?
Well through trial and error, I think I've discovered how to post something. Short version -- My diesel won't run, won't move, even though when I put it on the track the back wheels are spinning like crazy. And they make quite a racket, only the back wheels. Now mind you this is with the remote turned off. I'm puzzled. Help!
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