Need Help Diagnosing Tender Issues on a Lionel Legacy UP 4-12-2

Sparks at the drawbar tells me that you have grounding pick up issue.

So either your wheels are dirty, contacts are bent. Axle bushings are dry and need oil.

This would cause a lot of your problems. 

I'm with Bruk, sounds like you have power continuity issues.  One issue I've seen with several models of tenders is loose screws in the trucks.  This caused poor grounding and many of the symptoms you suggest.

First step is to make sure you have solid connections from both the wheels and the pickup rollers to the boards, fixing that will likely fix your problem.

Thanks for the quick feedback.   The wheels and pick ups are clean.   No bent axles and lubricated.   Sparks are not constant at drawbar.  Just described what my son said he saw.  However the metal hook that holds the tender and engine together is close to the track and if it does touch will spark.  I have checked screws at pickup and they are tight.

I should mention this engine worked fine (all the prior times used) till this episode.  Could be have blown the ir board?

Thanks for continued input.

Sparks at the drawbar either suggest it's dragging or lack of continuity through the wheels.  You checked the pickup screws, how about the tender sideframe screws?  Those were the ones I've seen loose and cause all sorts of interesting issues.

If the drawbar is dragging, you should see arc marks on the bottom of the tang.  You should be able to form the tender drawbar up a bit and increase the clearance so you don't get the hook dragging on the center rail.

The two boards you mention have nothing do with your issue.  They're just to transmit the IR signal to the Lionel LCS Sensor Track, you could unplug them totally and have normal operation.  If you had blown the IR link, the sound, backup light, and coupler would not work at all in command control.  I still think you have a power continuity issue.  If it turns out to be the board, all of that is handled on the RS-Lite sound board.

Thanks Jon.  I will pin each of the wires from the pick ups and grounds later tonight.  The screws to the tender are tight, there were no issues there.  Only think I noticed is that the one pickup wire on the bottom of the front truck (under the IR bar) did not have shrink wrap all the way to the circle lug.  Could it be possible that the draw bar could hit the crimp connector and cause a power issue?  Thanks for explaining the IR board.

Greg

John, Bruk, I have answers and it now appears to be working great.  Both of you were correct in the wiring issues.  I checked continuity to the studs for the positive and ground/return and they pinned out correctly to the connector.  I checked to the collector and the positive had connectivity.  The issue I noticed was in the ground from the connector at the railsounds board to the wheels (no dice).  I found a couple of issues, one the plastic spacer that isolates the collector from the truck also extends to the screw for the ground terminal.  Also, they use black coated screws for this ring terminal as well to attach the sideframes to the truck body.  I went in and sanded/scotch brighted all of the black screws (threads and bottom of head), the mating surfaces of the sideframes to truck.  I brought out a spare transformer and powered each truck separately and they powered the tender with sounds and lights with no flicker and full sound.  I even put the positive lead on one truck and the negative on the other and vice versa with the same positive results.  Now I believe the sparking was from the connection of the IR bar to the locomotive.  The tender was trying to pick up ground thru the IR metal connection.  I also noticed this when I tried powering before sanding parts and noticed a small arc (no arc after proper ground on the tender trucks).

Thanks again for being persistent.  I think/I know I learned a few more things today.

Greg

Glad to hear it was successful.  I totally forgot the fiasco with the painted surfaces, and I had to fix a whole bunch of passenger cars that had that exact issue!  You'd think I'd remember, I really must be getting old!