Balky engine revisited

[ole1]

A while ago I posted about a problem I was having with a 28055 Great Northern Hudson. The engine would pause intermittently and start again without tripping the e-unit or dimming the light.  I had detailed the preliminary trouble shooting we did at the club.  We pretty much eliminated lose connections or shorts as the cause which left the electrical components.  This is a fairly simple engine (can motor, e-unit,smoke unit and light) and after some searching on the Lionel website I found the parts list for this particular engine although no exploded drawing.  What I did find however was the part number for the e-unit and by searching by that number was able to get the wiring diagram. This was kind of an a-haa moment and the jumble of wires and wire nuts became clear.  To my plesant surprise this is an e-unit that is common to several engines and is readily availible through Lionel's website for $13.00 plus shipping.  That seems like a real bargain compared to what I've paid for some Lionel electronics. The e-unit arrived and I took it along to the club confident that I could handle replacing it but before I really got started one of the fellows who loves to do repair work took over and within about half an hour the old unit was out the new one in and the engine running perfectly.  So if there is anything to to be gathered from this it is that there is repair information availible if you search enough, not all repairs are real expensive and if you want to do it yourself work on it at home.

Ole

[More to restore]

Dear Ole,

I fully agree that you sometimes have to look and study to find a problem.
Also, I fully agree that e-units can be nasty. At the moment, I have a 1664 pre-war engine with one loose contact between e-unit drum and e-unit lower slider. First I pressed the slider a bit and then the engine started to forward and reverse again. I was happy. Then I mounted the engine, the wheels, drivers, etc. and put it back on the track. Unfortunately, it only reversed again. This e-unit is really driving me nuts. I will dissemble the engine and try a little bit harder to the slider on the drum. Otherwise I will buy a new e-unit. Finally, I will find a solution, just like you.

Best regards
Egbert

[lionelsoni]

Egbert, it is possible to tighten up the e-unit fingers without disassembling the e-unit, which you may know is a lot of trouble to reassemble.  The trick is to straighten out part of a paper clip and make a sharp right-angle bend to form an L-shaped hook about the width of one e-unit finger.  Hook this behind the finger at the point closest to the circuit board and pull just enough to keep the finger against the board as you push the finger away from you with a small screwdriver, pushing close to the hook, on the side of the hook farther from the circuit board.  The idea is to put a small bend in the finger near the hook, but without making a permanent reverse bend farther down the finger.