Polar RR K-4 Legacy Electrical Issues

Neal,

With the engine on it's side on your bench, take your continuity meter and put one probe on the pickup rollers and the other to ground.  If you get continuity and I think you will, do what I have outlined below and check continuity again.

Shut off the smoke switches and see if you are getting the same results.  If that does nothing, take the tender off the track and try with the engine powered up.  

One last thing, I have seen a few of the slide switches used for smoke that have broken up.  Check them for a positive throw (slide) in both directions.  

I am leaning to a shorted out smoke fan motor.

Marty:

Thanks for the suggestions.  I forgot to add that the primary smoke unit (smokestack, not whistle) was very noisy, though it seemed to work quite well otherwise.  Not sure if this is related to the issue or not. 

With the meter I was getting continuity (although sometimes the light on the tester would flicker).  I used the drive wheels as a ground, as I figured that was how it worked w/the outer rails being ground, but let me know if I did this wrong.  Continuity was obtained for each pickup roller.  For thoroughness' sake I repeated the process for each drive wheel (L side), same result.  Once both smoke switches were set to "Off" (both switches seemed to work properly), I got the same result too. 

I then placed the engine & tender on track as usual & began to power up - CAB-2 first, then master to the Z-4000, then moved the lever.  With the lever about 3/4 of the way it read 13V and 7.5 Amps.  I could hear an electrical "hum" from the engine as one might envision hearing from a high-voltage tower or mad scientist's laboratory.  I then shut everything down, removed the tender, and repeated the steps w/the same results.  It should be noted, though, that with this model (or at least my engine), the drawbar is angled very low and the tip of the "hook" will sit on or below the 3rd rail if not in the tender.  I do not believe it was touching the center rail during the test but cannot be sure. The engine lights did turn on but no engine sounds were heard.

I hope this helps.  Thanks again for your thoughts. 

- Neal

Rick, all good points.  I understood he was getting this on power up without trying to make the locomotive move.  

Neal, did you shut the smoke switches off and try the engine on the track without the tender?

Drivers & gear move fine, manually.

Yup. No difference w/ both smoke units off. And yes, this is w/out trying to move the engine- can't get that far in startup.

It needs to be on someones bench.  

When I do the continuity test?  Or do you mean I need to send it to Lionel?

You hit all the possible issues except placing the engine on the track without the tender.  I really wish you would do that and let us know.  Without doing that, you do not know if you have a short in the locomotive or the tender.  

I did do it w/out the tender, also.  Same thing.  I apologize for the confusion. 

Good job.  You should send it to Lionel or someone who knows the new board systems.

Thanks. I figured as much, but wanted to make sure.