Hi everyone. For some reason my lionel 681 is not puffing smoke. The smoke unit itself is working but its not puffing. If anyone has any ideas or tips that would be great. Thank you
Take out the smoke unit, disassemble it and scrape out any old, hardened pellet material. Clean the entire unit with Naphtha.
Make sure the air hole through the top of the cylinder into the bottom of the heater bowl is clear.
Make sure the heater element is intact with no broken wires, and no wires touching each other. Install a new smoke unit liner.
Reassemble the unit and assemble it to the loco. Apply power to just the heater, add a pellet or liquid smoke fluid, and move the smoke lever by hand to see if the unit smokes.
Larry
by any chance would you know how i would find a replacement part ( a new smoke unit ) like a speific part number. Thank you
So i did a bit of diagnosing. I took off the shell and ran it just a few inches. I noticed that the arm that goes up and down to puff the smoke does in fact move. Which leads me to believe that if the smoke unit is still smoking I simply need a new smoke unit. Does this sound like it make sense. Im new to this hobby so I consider this a learning experience haha. Let me know. Thanks everyone
God bless
one more question, would you recommend replacing the smoke lever and piston as well?
If no parts of the smoke unit are damaged, the only parts that may need to be changed are the heater element 671-225
http://www.ttender.com/weblistpictures/671-225.jpgand the smoke chamber liner 671-221
Available here.
http://www.ttender.com/list/num4.htmTurn the smoke unit upside down after taking the piston out and the top cover off, and notice a small hole in the cylinder that goes into the smoke chamber. Make sure the hole is clear.
Reassemble the smoke unit with new parts and you should be smoking in no time at all.
Larry