Engine troubles

Still looking for help does anyone have any ideas?

I'm certainly no expert in these matters, but since nobody else responded, I would check the following:

1. Make sure the RUN-PROG switch is in the correct position and does not have a loose connection.

2. Make sure the engine is not locked in neutral. 

3. Make sure the transformer has enough power to get the loco moving.

4. Make sure the transformer is  not hooked up backwards.

5. If all of the above checks out, you may want to take off the shell and make sure there are no loose, disconnected or pinched wires anywhere.

One more item - be sure that any TMCC Command Base or Legacy Base in the proximity of the loco is powered down before powering up in conventional.

Stupid question, but did you try running it in conventional not using your grandson's small transformer? I wonder if perhaps the transformer doesn't have enough power, or if the kind of power it is putting out (if for example it is a MRC transformer with clipped sine wave output) is causing the problem. The only other thing I can think of (and I am no expert on command control) is perhaps the engine is not switching to conventional mode, which again trying it on another transformer might rule out everything else. 

Engine troubles? Oh I thought we were going to talk about cars.....

When it did not work on the small carpet layout my grandson has I brought it to the Train Club I belong to and it did the same thing there. We also tried turning off the TMCC that the club uses and running it conventional but the same results. We tried moving all the various switches on the top of the engine under the hatch but the results were the same. Does anyone have one of these Kline/Lionel engines and if so did you experience any problems with it. Jim

Did you try doing an engine reset in command control? I had similar problems with my 2 Atlas TMCC engines. After I did command control engine resets both engines worked again in conventional 

Jim is a fellow member of our club. I did the reset to #8 on the r2lc board, unplugged the legacy and TMCC bases from the outlets, put the run program switch into program to operate it conventionally. We even put it in run as sometimes that switched was wired backwards.

It runs fine in command with a cab-1 or a cab-2.

Regardless, we tried everything. A point was made that it might have been in neutral upon start up, but wouldn't the transformer, which is a Z4000, switch its direction?

Do you have any pics of the board set up on this engine? Did these have cruise control?

Doug

Not sure, but I believe this may be the procedure if it's locked in neutral.

Doug,

Quite sure these did not have cruise control but I could be wrong. They have the modular board setup and easy to change out the r2lc receiver board. Regardless, just strange we could not run it in conventional.

Richie C,

That reset is for MTH engines only.

Ted/Jim, at this point I would try a different TMCC engine and see if that runs conventional with the Z-4000 to rule that out. Also I think I remember reading somewhere that the Z-4000 does not power down to zero voltage to the track and maybe it leaves enough not to let the engine cycle?

Doug

If you use the direction button, the Z-4000 reaches zero volts. What you’re probably thinking about was the residual voltage when the throttle is all the way off. My meter shows 0.1 volts when the throttle is off.