Can you provide any tips on a tune up for a 6654w? In particular, how do I get to the working parts and what to do then. Thanks.
I’m not sure about the 6654W, but do have some general whistle tender suggestions. You will need to remove the shell, which could be 4 screws underneath, or two screws front and back, or 1 screw in the front, and a tab in the rear. When open, you’ll find a whistle chamber (rectangular looking thing), with a motor on top or on the side, and a coil looking thing, which is the relay.
The first thing you should check is the wiring. If the wiring looks okay, put it on the track with the shell off, and see if the relay is closing when you power up and press the whistle button on the transformer. If the relay is bad, I don’t know what to tell you.
If the relay works, a general cleaning is in order. I usually start with the relay. The contacts I clean with alcohol, and use a little emery paper pushed between the contacts to clean them. Next, remove the brushplate from the motor on the whistle chamber, and clean the brushes, the brush holders, and the armature (the armature is the round thing under the brushplate that looks like it is divided into 3 sections) with alcohol. I use cotton swabs for this. Once clean, find a pencil with a good eraser on it, and use the eraser on the armature until it’s restored back to a bright copper color. Before reassembly, put some grease on the armature shaft,sometimes I use oil, then put the brushes and springs back into the brushplate, and reinstall the brushplate. Now you somehow need to get to the other side of the armature. This can be extremely difficult. I subscribe to the over-lube philosophy here. Whatever it takes to get some lubrication in there.
After all that put the tender back on the track, power up, and activate the whistle. If it whistles your done. If it doesn’t, but makes a terrible noise, relube the armature shafts. Keep doing this until you get a whistle sound. You will probably get a little more sound than just a whistle, but it shouldn’t be a terrible sound. I usually operate the whistle quite a bit with the t
Thanks for the tips; I’ll give it a shot. I’ve heard about thrust washers coming into play. Do they apply to the motors of whistle tenders?
thankey,
Try this site. There is a wealth of info there. You might start with the page simply entitled “Whistles.”
Thrust washers were factory-installed by Lionel in many of their motors. Often the “exploded” views will tell you this in a particular case. If a motor didn’t have thrust washers when first manufactured, but it has had a lot of wear, it may benefit from them now. In my experience, other than simple dirt and over-oiling, the four biggest problems with postwar air whistles are 1. dirty or bent relay contacts; 2. failure to lube the lower bearing; 3. cracks in the whistle housing or broken impeller, 4. wear (enlargement or “ovalization”) of the drive-shaft hole in the brush-plate.
The 6654W is a pre-war carry over sheet metal tender. Goes with the 1655 from 1948-49. There are NO screws holding the top on. The bottom will have “twisted” tabs which you straighten out and then pull off. You have to be careful as they can break. To secure the top twist the tabs back. Over the years I have found that small needle nose pliers work best. I would install new brushes in the motor, polish the commutator with emory cloth, and oil both ends of the shaft. Clean the relay contacts with rubbing alcohol.