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MTH Fire House Failure

BANDOBBANDOBOGR Forum Member

After three years of flawless operation, my MTH Fire House has ceased to function properly. Before I take it in for repair, I wondered if any on here had some advice on what could be wrong. The problem began when the power was turned off mid-cycle. Normally, that results in the truck returning quietly to the house. It did, but door didn't close fully. Then, no response to button, but then, all of a sudden, any power brings truck out without sounds and it seems to keep trying to run, with gear noise.  All I can think is that there has been some type of electronics control chip failure, but I really don't understand its workings. Removing the bottom plate only showed a large, geared wheel with two switches.

 

Any thoughts or advice? There is an approved MTH Repair LHC in the area, and I am also reasonable driving distance to MTH HQ in Columbia, MD. I note that they have "walk in service" some mornings.

 

Thanks for any thoughts.

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JohnBJohnBOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

Bob,

    We had a MTH Firehouse on our club layout that stopped working. We purchased it used at a local train sale that the club was participating at from another one of the venders. I think we paid $60 or $70 for it. When it stopped working I took it to a LHS that does MTH repairs. About three months latter I received a call to pick it up as it had been fixed. The cost of the repairs (the firehouse was well out of warrenty) was $87. Although shocked I paid the bill as I did not give a limit to the repairs when I left it. To make matters worse the repair guy who was a off site repair person had passsed away from a heart attack. I was told this was his last repair.

    Take my advice let MTH repair the thing as doing it yourself could be a health risk. Good luck

 

JohnB

Engineer-JoeEngineer-JoeOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBER

 I've only worked on the car wash. It has several switches where conditions must be met to continue in the cycle I believe. Try playing with that door switch and see if it helps?

 The car wash had a problem with that large wheel not spinning, seemed like it warped tightly against the housing. It too made a gear skipping noise from the locked wheel. I had to remove some material and add lubricant to get things running smoothly. Pretty robust thing and still works after all these years.

L LimaOGR Forum Member
Originally Posted by BANDOB:

After three years of flawless operation, my MTH Fire House has ceased to function properly. Before I take it in for repair, I wondered if any on here had some advice on what could be wrong. The problem began when the power was turned off mid-cycle. Normally, that results in the truck returning quietly to the house. It did, but door didn't close fully. Then, no response to button, but then, all of a sudden, any power brings truck out without sounds and it seems to keep trying to run, with gear noise.  All I can think is that there has been some type of electronics control chip failure, but I really don't understand its workings. Removing the bottom plate only showed a large, geared wheel with two switches.

 

Any thoughts or advice? There is an approved MTH Repair LHC in the area, and I am also reasonable driving distance to MTH HQ in Columbia, MD. I note that they have "walk in service" some mornings.

 

Thanks for any thoughts.


Somehow it seems somethin' got a bit out of sequence. We've used one as designed and one with the "platter" removed. If you can remove the structure and the bottom, you can manually rotate everything (door and truck) back to start position. By getting all the micro switches set to the correct positions it should  work normally.

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