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I'm having the same old problem with the PS2 tether. If I move the tether to engine plug around in the engine, I can get everything to work. But not at the same time.

I removed the cab/boiler and I can see arching/sparks on the top of the connector board. This would tell me the problem is the engine connector plug. Does that sound right? Can I purchase this connector with wire harness from MTH?

Im not a soldering wiz and don't feel capable to resolder all the wires to the board. I did reheat the soldering joints on the board to get them to flow into the board at the area that was sparking. Didn't do any good.

If I decide to hard wire the tender to engine can I just match wire colors ad solder them together? At least that would eliminate the problem in the future.

Thanks,

Bill

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Where exactly are you seeing sparking?  An exact MTH model number is always useful to help us help you.

If you're talking about the PS/2 curly tether, there is a replacement available that you can simply splice in 1:1 to replace the old plug and wire.  Some locomotives have a plug inside the tender so it's just a plug-n-play affair to replace the tether.

For the engine connector, sometimes the pins break free and need to be resoldered.  That's a bit trickier for a novice solder jockey to handle.

I don't understand what board you're talking about unless it's the little connector board for the tether in the locomotive.

You need to flow in solder at the pin junction.  Not the pad where the wires attach.  If you can't do it, an electronic tech that can solder (TV Repair) could do this.  If the white and yellow pins are at issue you should see motion problems and loss of lights and or smoke heat.

Or the other problem is that some where on the engine side the white or yellow wire have broken insulation and is touching chassis.  This could also be an issue with Mux board in  engine.  This all assumes no problem with tether.  Already discussed.  G

Thanks, that was my original thought. But thought it might make a difference.

Two further questions, please:

Can I buy a new 10 pin connector from MTH? And would it be any better than the old connector?

If I decided to hard wire the connection do I just match up the wires with the same color from the tender to the engine? I'm not really sure it would matter to me that I couldn't disconnect them.

Thank you very much for your advice.

Bill

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