hello all, I have a Lionel legacy K4 that lost all sounds. At first the sounds would stop randomly. I would restart the engine and the sounds would come back. This started to happen more and more frequently. Now the engine does not have sound. Any ideas on how to fix this issue? Thanks!
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Another quick video; sounds came back for a split second.
Very odd. How's the solder connections to the speaker? Maybe one is coming off. That's about all I can offer. Btw, before y'all say post the product number it's 6-11319.
Trainlover9943 posted:Very odd. How's the solder connections to the speaker? Maybe one is coming off. That's about all I can offer. Btw, before y'all say post the product number it's 6-11319.
Wires to speakers are ok, I noticed that if I Move the wires that go to the tether and the wires that go to ground & hot; the sounds go out. It may be a bad tether but I want to know if anyone else has had this issue before I go messing with it. Thanks for posting the item #.... my baaaad!
Is the center rail of your track clean? It looks weathered with a heavy coating of something. Does the sound work with a new 9 volt battery installed in order to keep power to the sound board?
Lastly, are the optics of the tethers clean on both engine and tender and aligning with each other? Use a Q-tip to clean them off. A loose wire to the center pick-up could cause power to drop to the tender and the sound quit without a new battery.
Check the engine to see if it's sending the signal to the tender using a cell phone. You should see a purple light from the wireless tether on the engine. If you see the light try a different tender to see if it receives signals. This should help you isolate the issue to the engine or the tender.
If you're moving the tether wires and changing things, you could have a bad connection under the heatshrink on the drawbar, that's been a problem for a few that I've gotten for repair.
gunrunnerjohn posted:If you're moving the tether wires and changing things, you could have a bad connection under the heatshrink on the drawbar, that's been a problem for a few that I've gotten for repair.
This seems to be the most logical explanation. I'm gonna cut away the heat shrink and check. Do you know what diameter heat shrink tubing lionel uses on these drawbars?
thanks!
Have you tried placing the tender on the track by itself and powering it up? It should start making idle steam sounds as soon as its powered.
You can push it around and see if the sound still cuts out. FWIW, these models are EXTREMELY sensative to dirty track and/ pickup rollers. My legacy K4 has cut out and even stalled on what I thought was clean track......until I cleaned the track and the issue was gone.
Lionel made a board change in later year legacy locos to help remedy this a bit.
When powering up the tender behind the loco, the signal from the loco "tell's" the tender sounds to remain off until the loco is addressed and started up.
RickO posted:Have you tried placing the tender on the track by itself and powering it up? It should start making idle steam sounds as soon as its powered.
You can push it around and see if the sound still cuts out. FWIW, these models are EXTREMELY sensative to dirty track and/ pickup rollers. My legacy K4 has cut out and even stalled on what I thought was clean track......until I cleaned the track and the issue was gone.
Lionel made a board change in later year legacy locos to help remedy this a bit.
When powering up the tender behind the loco, the signal from the loco "tell's" the tender sounds to remain off until the loco is addressed and started up.
Just tried the tender by itself. It powers up but when I push it; it cuts out. I have other older legacy engines that run fine. My track is weathered but it's clean. Thanks for the suggestion. I think I need to check the tenders tether.
Dj'sOgaugetrains psted:Just tried the tender by itself. It powers up but when I push it; it cuts out. I have other older legacy engines that run fine. My track is weathered but it's clean. Thanks for the suggestion. I think I need to check the tenders tether.
Your still losing power to the sound board for whatever reason.
I have other legacy and TMCC locos too. The K4 will cut out when others won't.
The easiest thing to do first is clean the track and rollers anyway to start with. I use Lionels abrasive eraser and then wipe it off with 91% ispropyl alchohol.
I'd get the tenders sounds to stay on, then if the issue persists start looking at the tether.
RickO posted:Dj'sOgaugetrains psted:Just tried the tender by itself. It powers up but when I push it; it cuts out. I have other older legacy engines that run fine. My track is weathered but it's clean. Thanks for the suggestion. I think I need to check the tenders tether.
Your still losing power to the sound board for whatever reason.
I have other legacy and TMCC locos too. The K4 will cut out when others won't.
The easiest thing to do first is clean the track and rollers anyway to start with. I use Lionels abrasive eraser and then wipe it off with 91% ispropyl alchohol.
I'd get the tenders sounds to stay on, then if the issue persists start looking at the tether.
Hhmmm good point. I'll try a good cleaning tonight and then post the results.
RickO posted:Dj'sOgaugetrains psted:Just tried the tender by itself. It powers up but when I push it; it cuts out. I have other older legacy engines that run fine. My track is weathered but it's clean. Thanks for the suggestion. I think I need to check the tenders tether.
Your still losing power to the sound board for whatever reason.
I have other legacy and TMCC locos too. The K4 will cut out when others won't.
The easiest thing to do first is clean the track and rollers anyway to start with. I use Lionels abrasive eraser and then wipe it off with 91% ispropyl alchohol.
I'd get the tenders sounds to stay on, then if the issue persists start looking at the tether.
Sorry it took me this long to reply back, I finally got around to troubleshooting again and it's fixed. There was a huge build up of gunk on the outer wheels. After like 50 q-tips and some alcohaul it's running like new! Glad it was a simple stupid fix.... duuuuuuhhhh.... check the simplest things first. :-) thanks for the help!
Its working! Thanks to all who gave suggestions.
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