I understand the capacitors are for noise suppression in TMCC loco. Question, will failed capacitor cause motor to not start unless you push or spin armature with your finger? Loco is 18565 GP9 with RS and TMCC.
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Unless the cap is completely shorted, the answer is no. And if it were, you'd know from the smoke. Try unsoldering one lead of the cap from the motor and try again. I'm answering from a position of not really knowing what the rest of the circuitry is all about.
The caps wouldn't cause the motor not to start, I'd start with some maintenance on the motor, clean the commutator, check the brushes, and lube the bearings.
GRJ is correct. Probable a mechanical, rather than an electrical problem.
I am trying to help someone else and talking him through it. This is exactly what I suspect. He had some heat at the top field connection where there was a big glob of cold solder joint. I had him fix that this morning. Now I am thinking service the motor -- clean commutator, lube top and bottom and test again while motor is sitting free. Of course I will make sure axles and gearing all free and lightly greased. The big glob looked like a past repair attempt poorly done so I questioned electrical integrity. The caps to brush holders are a mess also and are globbed across both sides of brush holder so that the spring cannot be moved to enable brush withdrawal. I will probably have him suck all the old solder off that and do it properly if we both feel he is comfortable. Thank you all for your comments. The caps were my unknown and I did not think they were aiding start in any manner since they are not across the brushes but are brush to common. Again thanks so much and I welcome any other thoughts.
just hope he didnt short out the electro magnet feild
If the motor has to be turned by hand to start, maybe one of the commutator segments is open. You can check continuity of each adjacent segment once the brush holder is off.
