My dad's 2055 stopped working a few years ago. Forgetting what the syptoms were, i tried to see if a cleaning would help. I cleaned the brushes and commutator face (they were filthy). A test "run" shows that the motor is smoking, so I turned it off right away. This is the first train that I'm really attempting to fix, so sorry if questions are simple. I'm assuming that means I have a short somwhere? I have continuity between the three sections on the coummutator face. I cannot remove the armature, due to the middle wheel. Do i need to remove it, or since I have continuity, it should be fine? I don't have a wheel puller. Is my best step forward to disconnect the e-unit from the motor and bench test the motor by itself or is there an simplier thing to check first? Thanks in advance for any help
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aboard!
Oh man, this is a case of I really wish I was there looking over your shoulder!
Smoke coming from the engine is definately a symptom of a short somewhere. I assume you've tried to run it with the outer shell removed so you can observe where the smoke's coming from.
My Lionel 736 started smoking several years ago, and it turned out it was coming from the E-unit, a free section of wire was "diseased," for lack of a better term, and was glowing like a light bulb filament. I cut out the bad section, spliced what remained back together with a shrink tube over it, and no more problems after that.
If the smoke's coming from the motor make sure you've got free rotation of the drive wheels and the motor's not fighting to get them to turn. If you've got free rotation and the motor still smokes I'm afraid the motor may have gone bad on you and there probably isn't much you can do about it. It happens. Disconnecting the E-unit and running the motor by itself is worth a try, but you don't need to remove it from the frame. If you've got a mitre box handy you can improvise a cradle for the engine, turn it upside down and run it that way.
When you cleaned the brushes and commutator I'm assuming you made sure they were dry when you were done, they won't work with any kind of oil or cleaning fluid residue on them.
I wouldn't try to remove the wheel, you really need a special tool to do it.
I can't think of anything else, maybe someone has other ideas?
i have the shell off. But I did leave the side arms connected to the wheel and just had them up and out of the way. Maybe they touched something and I didn't realize it. I'll take those off before I try again. I have free rotation of the wheels and drive shaft. I'll try again and look for exactly where the smoke is coming from. I assumed the motor. When I saw the smoke, I just unplugged it as it suprised me. I cleaned them months ago and finally got around to testing. So, everything is dry by now.
Side note. When this died, I bought another 2055 off of ebay which ran for a year or so. That died. I brought them to a local train guy before he retired a few years ago. He said they weren't fixing. I don't remember what he said about this one.. He said the other had a bad e-unit. It was right before christmas and he was swamped, so he probably didn't think it was worth his time. Maybe I can make 1 good one. I was hoping to fix them both, but my son likes pushing one around the track by hand. I bought another off ebay after that.. what can I say I'm partial to the 2055
Hey, I've got a 2055 myself, they're a good engine!
Listen, if you run into a 2056 grab that one too! I bought one at a train show several years ago, and I call it "The Bruiser," it'll pull tree stumps even with no Magne-Traction.
http://www.tandem-associates.com/lionel/lionel_trains_2056_loco.htm
Worse comes to worse you can always run those Lionels without the E-unit, you can wire the motor direct from the pick-ups and run forward only, at least until you find a replacement E-unit, either an original type or electronic.
Electronic E-units are available from these folks. Easy to install too.
https://www.dallee.com/
My lionel 1666 engine hums but won't run. I checked continuity and I can hear the e-unit shifting. The wheels are free running. I cleaned all electrical contacts.
Disconnect the wires from the 'E' unit to the motor.
Wire the motor to the transformer as such: One transformer wire to one brush, the other brush gets a jumper wire to one field connection. The other field connection is grounded. The other transformer wire to ground. Apply power. The motor should run in one direction. Reverse the brush connections and apply power, and the motor should run in the oppposite direction. The motor must pass this test or it is bad.
Larry
Thanks. I guess I have a bad motor. Can't believe it. It was my first Lionel engine from 20 years ago.
After a few days of house projects, it was time to take another look. I went to take the side arms off and i saw how dirty the motor was, where I could see. I shot some compressed air in there. I saw something sticking out, it was the pin that holds two pieces of tubular track together. After I removed it, I was hopeful. I hooked it back up and now it keeps tripping the ZW transformer. I guess this will be my learning engine. I'll buy a wheel puller to get this thing all taken apart. I tried a facuet puller, I couldn't get it under the wheel. Oh well, I don't know when I'll have time for this. Thanks for the advice from people.
It may help you to know that it is not usually necessary to disconnect the e-unit in order to bypass it when testing the motor. When the drum is in one of its (four) neutral positions, that is, with the inner fingers resting on plastic rather than metal, all three motor wires are isolated at the e-unit. Then to test-run the motor you can make a temporary connection between the field wire (often green) and one of the brush wires (often yellow or blue) and apply voltage between the motor frame and the other brush wire.
This may not work if the e-unit fingers are badly mangled, but if that's the case you already know where the problem is.
Bob Nelson
Thank you for the good info. The fact that the e-unit is bypassed when in neutral seems obvious after you said it, but I probably wouldn't have realized that on my own for another 10 years. Thanks!
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