Interesting comment. I have always wondered about shill bidders. How do I identify them?
I only have 50+ winning bids-about 2/3 being train related-, but I set my high number when I find an item and generally know it's value to me. I almost always try to snipe the bid, waiting until the last minute,often losing the bid. On eBay, timing is everything. I can honestly say that I have never been disappointed with a buy from eBay because I assume the item to be less than described. I did buy a stolen item once, but was compensated-not by eBay- but by the original owner.
Still, $345 for a clapped out 2333 AA is a little steep. I might feel a little peevish about that.
old iron daveI only had 1 bad experience buying on ebay I bought a lionel ZW. The seller said it was recently serviced. It turned out it wasn't. It looked great though ! When i brought this to the attention of the seller he dismissed it . I knew from this response that i wasn't going to get any satisfaction , so my parting response was that all items he sells in the future should be safe . This unit was serviced incorrectly and was a potential hazzard which is what i conveyed to the seller. The takeaway is that from that moment on i would only buy from a seller with good feedback and really look at pictures. Some sellers do sell items that they are not familiar with and will tell you that. It is the buyers responsibility to make sure they get the best deal and that you are getting what you want. RegardsDave
https://brentsandsusanspicutures.shutterfly.com/
Dave Smith had a post about squeezing a warped drum back into shape with pliers. I had a drum overheat some years ago, and didn't have a replacement, so I squeezed it back into shape. Worked fine.
trainrat You do not mention what set you bought so I cannot say about that part. Ebay can be difficult to buy from because too many sellers either are not knowledgeable, or are passing off their worst pieces from their collections. Others buy from an estate sale or somewhere else and try to make big bucks passing them off as something other than what they really are. Roger
You do not mention what set you bought so I cannot say about that part. Ebay can be difficult to buy from because too many sellers either are not knowledgeable, or are passing off their worst pieces from their collections. Others buy from an estate sale or somewhere else and try to make big bucks passing them off as something other than what they really are.
Roger
I have figured out what is wrong with my brain! On the left side nothing works right, and on the right side there is nothing left!
Call me a dinosaur, call be obsolete, call me hopelessly old-fashioned, but dammit before I put my hard-earned money down on something I want to SEE it.
Maybe I miss out on a lot of things, but so what? This is a hobby, not a religion. Not to me anyway.
It may be the lighting, your repaired drum seems to have silver contacts.
As far as I know, nobody has made reproduction drums with silver contacts.In addition, the black drums only came on the market recently, I seem to recall that you mentioned putting this drum back together again a while ago, before this latest batch was released.
So your drum is almost certainly original.
As an aside, I have a few drums in red, bright green, and black with similar distortion (not as pronounced) . In my case the drums were never installed. The plastic has a different quality to it's appearance on these drums. It does not seem to be the same time of plastic as was normally used. So there must have been something wrong with the material. (Maybe I should get my Lionel plastics lab out, and figure out what they are made from) :)
msaccoWell, this thread is going in a good direction then. Im still going through my stock of white drums from Jeff from a few years back. I apologize as I assumed they were still being made.
The fellow who had the white drums made is no longer making them. He sold the tooling to another person who may have recently started making durms after a gap of several years. The drums that are currently being made are black with brass contacts (as opposed to copper). Lionel is selling these drums. I don't know whether Lionel had them made directly, or if they are buying them from the person who has the aforementioned dies. I do know that Lionel used to sell the drums made by the fellow who had previously owned the dies.
I have not tried any of these recently made black / brass drums.
As far as original drum colors go, Jim already listed black, red, and green. There are two different greens, grey, brown and during the Modern Era, there were some clear drums made. Also, older drums have silver plated contacts, as do older e-unit contact fingers. I don't know when they discontinued the silver plating.
Well, this thread is going in a good direction then. Im still going through my stock of white drums from Jeff from a few years back. I apologize as I assumed they were still being made.
Maybe Jeff can get the white ones back in production or Olsten's.
Mike S.
Earl,
The black drum that you have is an original. I have seen original drums that are black, red, and green. There may be more colors, but that is all that I have ever serviced. To my knowledge, all repro drums are white.
After reading about all of the problems with some reproduction drums, I am now wondering if my drum that was so distorted (shown in the photo on the previous page) was a reproduction. How do you identify reproduction drums?
Earl
Good, well at least I wasn't insulting him then.........
Whoever is making them should improve the plastic, and charge just slightly more. I would rather pay for quaility than quantity.
Fordiesel69 This is not meant to bash Jeff, his parts are great and his service is better. Just whoever is manufacturing these drums is not doing a good job on the quality.
While Jeff does manufacture some parts, as well as tools for the ST-350 arbor press, he does not make the drums. .
I did buy them from Jeff Kane and they melted in less than 1 hour or so. Nothing I did wrong because the original is still working, just is pitted and has coggs that are rough. The overall size of the brass contact surface was a lot smaller and lower quality the way it was cut. This is not meant to bash Jeff, his parts are great and his service is better. Just whoever is manufacturing these drums is not doing a good job on the quality.
Try a recent batch of black / brass and you will find the same thing. For sure if yours is dual motor. Maybe a single motor they would work fine, who knows.
msaccoNot sure where you're getting them from. But I've used many white and brass repro drums with no problems at all. Get them from Jeff Kane and all will be well.
Until recently, reproduction drums had copper contacts. I agree that these reproduction drums, which are typically cast in white plastic, work fine. I use them in my repairs of "operator grade" items. As far as I know, it is only the latest round of reproduction drums, which are molded from black plastic, that seem to be made with brass contacts. A while ago, I noted that one of my friends, who is a parts dealer, opinioned that the brass contacts would be troublesome over time. We'll see whether he is correct.
Not sure where you're getting them from. But I've used many white and brass repro drums with no problems at all. Get them from Jeff Kane and all will be well.
this really isn't a problem.
I did not make myself clear, I'm not debating the act of sqeezing the black portion in, but what I'm amazed at is that you had the concept of squeezing the black portion in and that it might, or will work.
That's great! If, I thought of that and attempted to do that type of repair I'd damage the part, due to my clumsiness. Believe me, I agree with you, because there were plenty of times that I had to rig something up, due to the shortage of a part, or shortage of money to buy the correct part.
I'm sorry for not clarifying myself with my previous post.
And, Yes. The 2343 'A-A's' are fantastic.
Enjoy,
Take Care,
Ralph
I already bought 2 repro black / brass drums and they melted on my NYC F3. I put the original back in which is in worn, rough shape and it seems to work fine until I can take my time and find an original. If you search, you will find where experianced people state the repro drums are junk, and I can confirm they are too.
My santa fe, I just locked it in forward and moved the lever so it will stay in forward for the time being.
I"m not sure why you need an original drum. These are replaceable from any parts dealer and don't affect value. And you don't have collector pieces anyway.
If you want a lionel drum, I'm sure you can pick one up on their site as they're making conventional engines again. Otherwise Jeff Kane used to have some original green drums but he's probably out by now. any repro will do.
I use "E-Bay" quite a bit and rely (Right or Wrong) on the pictures as well as the descriptions. For the most part, I guess I've been fortunate. The condition on only two items that I purchased was questionable. In each case, I contacted the sellers and, in both cases, the sellers refunded part of the cost.
Answer: NO Look at it this way: You got the item you wanted. You got a chance to work on it. You are enjoying it. Can't beat that!
PS. Maybe next time you buy on "E-Bay", when you open the package, you will find a "real treasure", something that the seller missed and you didn't expect.
Train-OEarl,Whatever, gave you the idea to squeeze the black part back? That's great.In my case, I'd squeeze and damage the drum completely.Ralph
Whatever, gave you the idea to squeeze the black part back? That's great.
In my case, I'd squeeze and damage the drum completely.
Ralph,
When I received my 2343 AA set, I really liked them. When the e-unit would not cycle, I had no replacement e-unit drum, so it was either repair the drum or set the 2343 on a shelf and wait for a replacement. As the old adage goes, necessity is the mother of invention.
sir james I He did discribe the running condition.......
He did discribe the running condition.......
I don't know what I was thinking.....must have gotten so excited that he got the pair that I went temporarily insane. Sorry Ford and everyone.
Jack
IF IT WON'T COME LOOSE BY TAPPING ON IT, DON'T TRY TO FORCE IT. USE A BIGGER HAMMER.
It is interes
Fordiesel69The E-unit drum is warped / disfigured badly so that it hangs up
That is interesting that you also had a warped e-unit drum on a 2343. I had the same experience. Here is how I handled the problem for a temporary repair. I have now changed out the drum.
I removed the e-unit drum and attempted a repair because I didn't have a replacement drum. I used vise-grips to squeeze most of the black insulating material back into the drum. I then used a Dremel tool to grind off any remaining material that protruded beyond the drum. The e-unit then worked properly. I didn't know how long the repair would last.
The odd thing is the e-unit was working fine when I purchased the engine on e-bay. Two months later, when I tried to activate the e-unit, the drum would not rotate and I could see why. I have no idea what happened to the drum in the 2-month time period between when it was working fine and the failure, when it would not rotate.
Here is a 'Before' photo:
Here is the 'After' photo:
Fordiesel69,
More, than likely the seller knew the engine had problems, which he should have stated, but at least he owed-up when you questioned him. He, probably was weary of a poor report filed with good ole' E-bay!
Well it appears my worries were unwarranted. The seller has given a partial refund to the effect of the parts I listed as needing replacement. The parts I listed were not somthing I could repair, so I listed the price of replacements. Now I can say the fun will begin. Cosmetically by the pictures I thought they would be better, but being 60+ yrs old, and the price price adjustment, I am happy and can look past the blemishes.
Now if I can only find a original lionel E- drum I will be set. Anyone have a used one they want to sell in good cleanable condition?
did you conatact the seller before you did anything to them? Ive found the vast majority of sellers will work with a buyer if they are just given the chance.
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