MTH Z4000 Transformer shuts.

Hello Juan,

Welcome to the Forum!

Could you give some more detail?  When you say it "turns off completely," do you mean all power to the track shuts off?  Do the voltage displays shut off as well?  Does the large red light come on?

Also, does the green light go out?

Dear Friends:

Thank you very much for your replys. Transformer totally off (does not function, no lights, no works, dead!). After a while, return to work, but after a few hours, it will do the same. I expect your kindly comments and thank you for your welcome!

MY BEST REGARDS.

Probably needs someone to open it up, if it's under warranty, I'd either find a local MTH repair person or send it back to MTH.

I agree with John. Sounds like a chip overheats that has a thermal shut off to protect it. When it cools down it works again. Is the fan working,as I remember these models had a fan? 

Dale H

Good point Dale, there is a fan in the Z4000, and I suspect it's necessary for long term operation.

First, does the fan run?

Second, can you feel it at the opening?

If no fan it is overheating. Do you have it in a dusty, pet hair location?

Might be possible to vacuum the opening and get debris out if it is operating.

Dear Friends:

Thank you very much all your comments. I have this Z-4000 since 3 years ago. Yes, this Transformer has a fan; a few weeks ago started to make a strange noise, and checking now, I think the noise is in the fan. Probably is dirty (Try to mantain my trains in smoke & pet free home) or works erratic.

I live in Mexico City, and unfortunately, there is no MTH Service Center or distributor in my country, and shipping it to U.S.A would be expensive. I think that I have to open the transformer, any of you know how to open it and the tool I need?

MY BEST REGARDS.

I haven't taken mine apart, but it looks like a Torx driver may be the ticket.  That's probably all you need to get to the fan.

I took the fan out of mine 11 years ago because I didn't like the fan noise. It never draws much in the way of amps because it powers never more than 2 trains at a time. To those who are concerned with your electronic stuff over heating, remember transistor and chips are not as sensitive to heat as flesh. They can run OK very hot.

Hello Juan. Welcome to the Forum from Mexico. Not sure what stores are available there. Sometimes you can go to a discount tool place or maybe Walmart. They make combination screw driver and socket sets with large numbers of different heads. These are usually inexpensive. I am not sure MTH would send you parts as they do no want the user servicing the Z4000 unit but you could give them a try. I imagine Mexico City is hot and maybe humid? So you want the fan in working order.

Dale H

It might work that way but heat in general is the enemy of most any type electrical component. The engineer put a fan on the unit for a reason.

Dale H

You will need a long 3mm Allen Key wrench.  G

The PN for the replacement fan is BD5100001; available from MTH part for $24.

The first Z-4000 often developed a noisy fan. It was Jamicon unit.

The replacements are made by Sunon and their PN is KD1206PHB3.

Its a 50 mm square by 15 mm thick unit. You may be able to find something local to replace it.

Rod

Dear Friends:

Thank you very much for all your comments. Mexico City is something warm and not much humidity, dear Dale H. Thank you for the information of the tool, dear GGG, I bought it today. I will begin my adventure of opening my Z4000 transformer. Hope only be the Fan, I will keep you informed of my work.

KIND REGARDS.

I think my Z4000 was one of the first, dear Rod. Thank you very much for the information!

MY BEST REGARDS.

That's a very common fan size for computer stuff, so those should be pretty readily available.

I know how to fix it!

Get a ZW!!!!!

Dear Friends, only for informing you that my problem with my Z4000 was resolved. I changed the FAN and I was testing it for almost one month and no problems. Thank you very much for your help.

Good info, Thanks.  G

Good thread.

I bought my first Z-4000 years ago and the fan didn't work. At first I thought I needed a new fan, but it turned out that the fan was wired backwards and I just unsoldered and reversed the 2 wires and its ran perfect ever since. I don't know if it was assembled wrong at the factory or if someone changed the fan and wired it wrong as I bought it used.

I highly recommend the Z-4000 transformer as it puts out Pure Wave sine wave over many newer transformers available. It also has the amp and volt meters which are very helpful.

I also own PW ZW transformers which are good but aren't near as powerful and will overheat if loaded to high.

For PW transformers, you just have to keep in mind that their ratings were for input power, output power won't exceed more than about 80% of input power.  I tested a ZW(R) for maximum capacity and I got around 230 watts before the voltage dropped to below 15 volts, which I considered overloaded.  That was about 14.5 amps, and the breaker didn't trip with that load for about 10 minutes.

Another point is the wattage rating is only for full throttle, if you're only using half the transformer windings, you don't have even the 230 watts available. 

Modern transformers are usually rated by output power.