Desperate for Help!! MTH PS2 E8 Randomly shutting down.

Good Evening,

I am by no means an expert in this area and simply read all the things you have already tried. I would say try looking at the area in the motor where the threaded shaft goes into the drive wheels. I don't know how often you run this particular locomotive but if it's been put away or not run often this could be the culprit. If, in fact, this is the problem try using LGB grease or similar in that area.  The grease gets old and may need a good old re-greasing if that's even a word.  Best Wishes!

Dave

It has a short in it. Somewhere there’s a wire that must have a cut in the insulation and it’s grounding out.  The vibration from the sounds or the movement must be moving it into contact with the frame or something.  Either that or you’ve got a component on the board gone bad. 

If it does not remember the DCS setting after shutdown, the battery is no good or the harness is bad, or the board is going bad.  You say fresh battery what does that mean?  Try a new alkaline for testing purpose.  I would also disconnect speaker at 2 pin.  Speakers on these go bad, along with older batteries.  You may also have a short or a loose AC power wire on the trucks, red or black.  Bad pickups even though oiled (you can't see corrosion on pin inside roller) can also cause issues. Wheels need to be cleaned with wire brush.

Of course this is a PS-2 5V I assume from 2002, and that board could be having end of life issues.  G

acrking76 posted:

 

-sometimes moves not even an inch and dies, sometimes moves a foot and dies

-Horn always kills the engine consistently

GGG posted:

If it does not remember the DCS setting after shutdown, the battery is no good or the harness is bad, or the board is going bad.  You say fresh battery what does that mean?  Try a new alkaline for testing purpose.  I would also disconnect speaker at 2 pin.  Speakers on these go bad, along with older batteries.  You may also have a short or a loose AC power wire on the trucks, red or black.  Bad pickups even though oiled (you can't see corrosion on pin inside roller) can also cause issues. Wheels need to be cleaned with wire brush.

Of course this is a PS-2 5V I assume from 2002, and that board could be having end of life issues.  G

From your video, you have a PS2 3V board.  Again, from the video, when you start it up I think the sounds have a large amount of static in them.  I would do what GGG suggested and disconnect the speaker first and then see if the engine runs.  If it runs, you could just have a bad speaker, easy to change out and test again.  If the engine still doesn't run and you can't find any wiring problems, you should have the boards tested by a service tech

ACRKING76,

It won't help with your problem I don't think, but you need to change your batteries in your DCS remote. It's showing BAT  in your video.

This engine must have had an upgrade with the 3V board as MRMACKER observed. 

I did not watch video since this is a PS-2 3V upgrade, the whole speaker issue and with Battery high indicates the 5V processor is getting overloaded and shutting down the board.  Speaker can still be issue, along with smoke fan now, so turn smoke off.  But Battery HI indicates a problem with battery or battery charging circuit and I suspect you also have a board issue.  Hopefully just the top power supply board as that is repairable/replaceable.  If the bottom board is damage on the battery circuit your out of luck as that is not repairable or replaceable as it is obsolete.  And a PS-32 upgrade is required.  G

GGG,

I did not watch video 

        In the video, I'm assuming there is only the one engine on the track, the Z-4000 transformer shows 3.5 amps which a single engine should not be using.