Broken wire on New Legacy ES44AC

If you twist the truck and remove it, you should find the plug on the other end. Unplug it, unscrew the coupler and solder it back together outside the locomotive and reassemble  

I don’t think it’s attached to the truck?. It’s a kinematic coupler.

Is the coupler itself easily removable? I can’t seem to source a parts list with a pic.

No diagram for recent release, but this is an older one and the coupler would seem to be plugged into the truck via the white molex connector. I dont know at what point they started doing it this way. I honestly dont like it. I guess it makes service easier, but the wires are too long and they snag and stuff like this happens. Its worth twisting the truck off to look, as it takes less than 10 seconds. Turn the truck 90 degrees and it will unlock and come off.  Just keep track of the little spider that connects the motor and worm gear together.  The coupler itself just unscrews with the visible screw underneath it. If its not plugged to the truck, then you'll probably need to pull the shell to find the other end of the wires and you might as well then send it in for warranty repair.

Thanks guys. I’m waiting on a call from the repairman at my local shop in the morning since he was off today.

Most likely I’ll probably have to take it in to make sure I don’t fat finger something and possibly void any part of the warranty.

Here’s a pic of it.

If that wire touched the frame when you tried to decouple, you could have cooked the coupler output on the board.  I'd send it back to Lionel for warranty repair.

Agreed with GRJ...email Lionel, they'll send you a shipping label...send it back and they'll have it back to you repaired in 2-3 weeks.

Thanks guys. The front coupler works fine - does that mean the board is ok?

I just emailed them. I’ll post back once I hear from Lionel.
I’m also waiting on a call from my local hobby shop tech.

Local (small) hobby shop said to ship it to Lionel. They said they don’t have parts because Lionel is behind. I explained it’s just a broken wire, but he said if it did need parts, they just would not have them mainly because they don’t do much work on legacy engines anyhow.
So I’ll wait to hear from Lionel and send it back.

@Raven87 posted:

Thanks guys. The front coupler works fine - does that mean the board is ok?

No, the two coupler outputs are separate.  I'm not saying the board is bad, I'm just saying it's a real possibility with a floating coupler wire.  Truthfully, if it were mine, I'd fix the wire, but I do that for a living.  If you're at all unsure, sending it back is the best way to address the problem.

Raven, I believe you can fix this easy.  In your photos the red arrow points to the insulated wire that comes from a 2 pin molex under the shell that is not accessible with the rear truck removed.  

Up and to the right (1:00 position) is the wire lead from the electro coupler.  Straight up from your arrow is the coupler screw (Phillips washer head). Simply remove the screw to give yourself some room to move the coupler and provide slack.   Now solder up those two wires.

Before beginning measure resistance from black lead to ground/chassis.  If 0 ohms then you won’t need to insulate your solder joint.  

Thanks Steims and GRJ. I might try that but I’ll see what Lionel says.
the wire coming to the coupler doesn’t seem to have a lot of slack but there is some.
i did use a small needle nose to pull it away a bit.

If you do take this on be careful with those needle nose pliers pulling on the leads.   The black lead is laid in a groove on the rear pilot with some glue.  The coupler lead wire is soldered to the very thin coil winding.   Only extra slack for soldering will come from removing the coupler mounting screw.  

Thanks. Yes, I only used them to push it away a bit.

Just got the RA slip from Lionel. I’m sending it out tomorrow. Thanks for all the advice.

Forget about soldering it, you need a new coupler.

I received my new 2021 UP Veranda and out of the box the coupler wire was broken and hanging down. I sent it back to Lionel. Got it back and a week later the wire was broken again and sparking on track when I noticed it. I think the coupler wire on my engine was short and would get pulled when turning or picking engine up to put on track. I soldered it myself. Nothing got shorted out.

Sorry to hear that Ron. I hope my luck is better!

Thanks Raven, good luck to you,  happy soldering.😀

Hey GRJ- I have an Allegheny I would like to get upgraded. Is there a good way to connect other than this forum?

Steve

Quick update… I got an email from Lionel on Wednesday that they had the engine repaired and it was ready to ship back! They just received it on Monday.

The tech said he replaced the coupler and also both pilots due to some cosmetic issues. WOW! That’s great service  

Hope to get it back in the next day or so.

New update – the repaired locomotive was supposedly shipped and I was to receive it on December 14. But - As of today, December 22, it has not come in and the UPS tracking shows that it was Concorde, went to Eastern Pennsylvania for some reason, and then the last communication was that it was being returned to the shipper. No explanation given.
This was on December 19.

I just talked with Lionel customer service moments ago and explained that I wanted my locomotive and that they should get it to me as soon as possible or replace it asap.
Bottom line it has not been returned, yet.

Wow. 🤷‍♂️

Bummer, I've had a couple of shipping fiascos recently as well.  I still have a DHL shipment from China that is on hold now for ten days!  Hold for what?

@Raven87 posted:

New update – the repaired locomotive was supposedly shipped and I was to receive it on December 14. But - As of today, December 22, it has not come in and the UPS tracking shows that it was Concorde, went to Eastern Pennsylvania for some reason, and then the last communication was that it was being returned to the shipper. No explanation given.
This was on December 19.

I just talked with Lionel customer service moments ago and explained that I wanted my locomotive and that they should get it to me as soon as possible or replace it asap.
Bottom line it has not been returned, yet.

Wow. 🤷‍♂️

Hi Steve, it is the busiest time of year for shipping, and there are always weather related delays as well, so hang tight and it will show up. I always worry about porch thefts....

Thanks guys. I definitely get the busiest time of year issues but to ship it then the carrier supposedly return it but no reason given seems odd if true.
All I can do is wait. 🤷

Hi Larry! I’ll update it right away. Thanks for letting me know!