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Folks,

I have an MTH Coal Tower 30-9158 that has been working fine for some time.   In rerouting some wiring I accidentally wired the tower up to 18v and apparently I must have fried something in the controller pictured below.

 

The tower motor works.  When I press the lever on the left side of the controller 1/2 way it closes the bucket and when I fully depress the lever it moves the bucket up and into the tower as it is supposed to do.  When I press the middle lever it works as well and opens the tower Bombay doors.

However,  when I press the lever on the right side I get no response. It is supposed to move the bucket out of the tower and down.

There are 2 electrical components that are visible located on the left and right side of the controller.  I am not familiar with electrical components to know if they are resistors or such.  Both are identical and there are no visible markings on them.

When I put the ohm meter across the component on the left I get a reading of 4.20.  When I read the component on the right I get a reading of 0.   So I am thinking the one on the right is bad. 

I tried looking on the MTH site for a replacement controller but I don't find it.

So I was hoping someone can recognize what these components are and point me in the right direction to buy a replacement component since MTH doesn't have a replacement controller, or at least one that I could find.

I would appreciate any help or guidance.

Thanks,

Ed

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I find it hard to believe applying 18V AC to something that normally takes 14V AC (or whatever) would whack those parts but I'll take your diagnosis at face value.

Does you meter have a Diode Test mode?  Those look like diodes (rather than resistors).  These are 10 cent components so you'll pay way more for shipping from a US supplier.  Or, probably about $1-2 on eBay for more quantity than you'll ever need with free shipping from Asia if you can wait a few weeks. 

In this thread, a 1N4001 diode was suggested for a circuit that replaced the stock controller.  The controller box appears to use a surface-mount version - for example DL4001 39 cents at DigiKey.  Note the orientation of the silver band on one side of the part.

If you don't want to mess with soldering, components, etc. then Leo's eBay listing appears to be a $30 solution from within the USA.

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Last edited by stan2004

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