# smoke unit on lgb 2017



## tdonnellyem (Jul 8, 2012)

hello all:
i am having trouble with my lgb2017. it used to smoke profusely and then it died (just like a guitar string-seems to sound best right before it breaks!). i bought a new smokestack for it and for the first day it smoked fine. now a very thin, barley visible wisp comes out. i am running 20V with the lgb mts. i am using the lgb smoke fluid ive had for years. ive tried measuring the voltage coming out of the engine itself, but the probes on my multimeter are too short to reach down to the contact on the engine where the smokestack screws in. any ideas why all of a sudden the engine is no longer smoking? thanks for any ideas/help to get it working again


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## Trains West (Oct 4, 2008)

you problem is the smoke fluid you have had for years ...... 

the stuff goes bad and coats the smoke unint in a film that does not come off ... 

never use years old smoke fluid or yellowed smoke fluid


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## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

Take out the smoke stack and place alcohol in it and shake (not stirred for the James Bond fans) to try and rid the wick of residue. 
No guarantee this will work, but worth a try. 
These stacks are 18 volts and should work really nice on MTS. 
I assume track power goes to the stack, and not power from the MTS board as the bottom of the stack has the lever switch at the front plow and connections for power at the motor block.


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## FlagstaffLGB (Jul 15, 2012)

Agree with Dan and Scott to try cleaning out any residue from maybe old oil; but then I've used Marklin and LGB smoke oil that is 35 years old and it works fine...but there could be some problems if the oil isn't getting to the heating element. I took my stack unit out (unscrewed it from the engine) and put it on a test stand (basically a slightly larger hole drilled through a piece of 2x4 and secured in a vise). I have an older transformer that allows me to select between 4 volts DC up to 22 volts in various increments and I start out low and test the unit from there. Simple "test" leads were made using some scrap wiring. Some of the original LGB stacks were 5 volt and then you'll find them in 14 and 18 volt (at least that is what it says in the catalog). I found most of mine work very nicely at 9-12 volts (good smoke). Now, one of the problems seems to be the electrical pickup or delivery to the unit. If you haven't adjusted the spring in the electrical contacts to the trucks, you may not be getting constant power to the smoke unit, and therefore it isn't heating up enough to provide good smoke...but then the LGB engines use the pickups for all the power (and you didn't mention any operational problems with the LGB 2017). Anyway, you may just want to play around a little with the individual parts and see if you can isolate why the unit isn't producing like before. Gotta love a hobby!!!! Ed


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## tdonnellyem (Jul 8, 2012)

hey all, 
thanks for the suggestions. still very little smoke though. the alcohol cleaning seemed to help but only for a few seconds. the replacement stack came with a vial of lgb smoke fluid so i have been using that new fluid but still the unit just gives off a fine barely visible wisp. from searching around on other forums/personal pages i discovered that someone suggests running a resistor in series with the element, 39 ohm 1/2 watt. im not that good with reading schematics and have very little idea on how/where i would install it. i of course wonder maybe there is already a resistor there and perhaps it burned out?? i dont have any other operational problems with the unit. i didnt convert the engine to dcc so i dont know if the stack is getting power from the track or off the decoder. i can turn the stack off with the controller so im assuming its from the dcoder. again something im not super familiar with so i wouldnt know what i was looking at. so how would i determine if i was getting track power or power from the mts board? 
thanks again 

tim


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## mbendebba (Jan 22, 2011)

Tim: 

It sounds like you need to chang the CV value associated with the decoder terminal to which the smoke stack is attached. The smoke unit you are using requires 18V and it is probably set for a lot less than that. 

Mohammed 
http://www.allaboutlgb.com


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