3 clanks of death

you should ask this in the mth dcs and  ps2/3 section.

You need one of these:

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com...it-p/mth-50-1023.htm

I have had a lot of success with this chip and the 3 clanks issue.

Make sure you've got a fully charged battery installed before doing the chip reset.

Len is correct.  Just because you are the person who took the new green battery out of the package---Charge it to be sure.

Thanks guys

Okay, the reset kit has arrived.  Any suggestions on how to make sure the battery is properly charged before trying the reset?

But a NiMH battery, either from Ace Hardware or Harbor Freight. They would be the freshest ones, IMO. Connect the battery to the clip, pull the sound chip, install the reset chip, put the loco on the track, power it up for about 30 seconds. It should make steam sounds, after 30 seconds, turn off the power, pull the "Make PS" chip, and reinstall the sound chip. Put on the track power up and it should start up, turn off transformer and turn it on again, it should click and start moving forward. Any problem, let us know. 

BTW, where in PA do you live? I am in East Central PA, near Cabela's in Hamburg. Any problems, let me know and will help you if I can. 

Thanks train doc.  The reset kit came with a new battery. I just want to make syure that this battery has sufficient charge.  I was considering pputting the new battery in either the problem loco or another one and just let it sit on the tracks at 12 volts for about half an hour. Any problems with this approach? 

That will probably work, but it would be better to get a charger and charge the battery outside the locomotive. I have a multi-battery charger that will do NiCd or NiMH batteries of AAA through D sizes, plus 9v. It only cost me 15 or 20 bucks. I think mine was marketed by Eveready but you can get similar ones in lots of places. Be sure you get one that is rated for NIMH batteries, as these draw more charging current than Nicads. 

Use a new alkaline to do the reprogramming.  After that, install the new battery and run and charge together.  Unless this kit is been sitting for years, the battery should be good.  You can measure the V with VOM with a bulb as a load.  If it reads in the 8V or higher range you will be good.  If V drops fast, the battery needs to be charged, and I recommend an actual battery charger.  G

Well, I did the reset with a alkaline 9v battery. So far so good. The engine now moves again.  I  put the mth battery in attemped to enter reset mode without success.  I am happy that it moves, but several times when entering forward and reverse the bell starts going and I have to push the bell button to silence it. Is this just a low battery charge symptom?  Iam using a mth z750 brick and controller on a piece of gargraves for testing. 

fwiw, the chip puller is nearly useless. I had to pull the chip one corner at a time.

get a bcr.

WIth MTH battery raise voltage to about 12V and let it start up.  Once start up is complete turn power off.  Does it play shut down sounds completely, or stop abruptly at some point?  If completely, battery is good.

The bell can be a dc offset picked up as the train movers from...dirty track, dirty wheels and pickups, leaky Z-750 (not pure sine wave), motor leads touching chassis at solder joint on motor, or nick in a lead along the frame, finally a bad bottom board (but that would be continuous).  Clean the engine and lubricate.  Run on a layout.  See how it performs.  G

Jhz563:  I agree, the chip puller is difficult to use.  I had to try several times to get the chip puller positioned exactly right before it would grab the chip.....and even then it was not easy.  As far as the bell goes....I recently also did a Proto 1 engine, and I notice the bell rings as you describe.  Can this be a characteristic of this re-set?...I don't know.  It has been many years since the Proto 1 engine that I did this re-set on actually ran and it didn't run for long as I had no layout to run it on at the time.  I don't recall if it operated this way before.  Then again, I am just happy to see this engine run again! 

Another observation:  The engine that I reset is a Cab Forward.  I notice it does not make a lot of smoke unless the voltage is cranked up to around +12 volts.  I did soak the smoke unit in mega steam smoke fluid before using as the old instructions mention....but perhaps I am just comparing the smoke output to current engines which fog up a room in a hurry!  Any thoughts/comments?