Hello: I am having an issue with my 671 turbine smoke unit. When engine is in neutral the smoke unit gets hot and when I put it in gear it puffs smoke for about 5-10 seconds then stops. The smoke unit does not seem to stay hot enough to burn the smoke when the engine is running (I think testing it with my fingers). I bought a new smoke unit on ebay that is reconditioned liquid smoke conversion from the pellets for the turbine engines. I connected it with good soldering added smoke fluid and I am having the same problem/issue compared to the original smoke unit. I am baffled. I even tried moving the power source connection to another contact point on the locomotive for the smoke unit and still having same issue. I also took out the old wire for the smoke unit and soldered in an all new copper wire no improvement. Any help much appreciated. I also have a 2020 turbine, identical to the 671 essentially. The 2020 original smoke unit works fine I have compared the two and all connections are the same. I don't see anything different or anything that I am missing.
Thank you
If the smoke heater element is good, and there is sufficient power to it, the usual culprit to poor smoke production is a clogged smoke unit.
Take the smoke unit out of the engine, take the heater element out, and locate the tiny hole at the bottom of the bowl. It is probably clogged with smoke pellet material. Use a very fine wire to unplug the hole. Reassemble the smoke unit into the engine and test it. Keep the engine in neutral when first putting in a pellet to help it melt, then run the loco.
Running the loco with a long train behind it will increase the voltage to the track and thus the smoke element, yielding more smoke. Running a short train may not allow the smoke element to heat up sufficiently to produce constant smoke.
Larry
Thanks for the information I will give those things a try and let you know