tender tether for MTH Hiawatha Hudson

I forgot on the Hiawatha if it was a 2 part tether. Does the other end of the tether have a plug too?

The end that goes to the loco has 10 pins. There are a number of plugs in the tender, which I have not yet torn apart completely.

In the tender, there seems to be at least:

-9 pin plug with 6 wires

-5 pin plug with 2 wires

-7 pin plug with 4 wires

There may even be another plug under the board stack in the tender.

I would start at the locomotive and touch up all 10 pins at the connector with a hot solder iron.  I have that engine and it has the 5 V board.  I plan on updating it with a PS-32 board and LED headlight.

Good advice from Marty. I would plug the tether into the board before touching the pins with the soldering iron. I do it this way because I am A.R. The tether is a universal type, it comes from MTH with ten little heat shrink tubing sections, and all you have to do is match the color of the wires, splice and solder. I always try it before heat shrinking the tubing. The tender tether is not expensive, it runs around $8, I have two on order from MTH, if you can wait until I get it. Email in my profile.

Marty Fitzhenry posted:

I would start at the locomotive and touch up all 10 pins at the connector with a hot solder iron.  I have that engine and it has the 5 V board.  I plan on updating it with a PS-32 board and LED headlight.

That's what I did to "fix" it the last time. This time the problem seemed seemed to come from a different place, but I will probably have to spend more time troubleshooting it.

Would you re-solder the connections with the plug inserted or unplugged?

It does sound like you have a bad tether if you are sure the PCB is solid.  Many 5V systems had unique tethers while 3V used a universal external tether BC-0000217 which has a 10 pin connector on both ends.  Once angled and the other straight.  There is then an internal tether which has the 12, 8, 7, 5, 4 pin connectors for the PS-2 board and a 9 pin if mux present.  Best bet is the universal for that.   G

Thanks gentlemen. I will re-solder the board in the loco and go from there. Out of town company coming in for the holiday will distract me for a while first.

Hello again. I got some time yesterday and checked out the locomotive. The problem seems to be resolved by re-soldering the connection pins on the PC board receptacle in the locomotive.

However, the board has been re-soldered/reworked too many times for me to be confident that it will stay fixed. I'm thinking it is time to replace the receptacle/PC board.

Does any one have one in stock they could sell to me, or at least know the part number?

Thanks again.

Does it look like this part?  http://mthtrains.com/part/AG-0000039

Here's another 10-pin board, no graphic: http://mthtrains.com/part/AG-0000066

I use the second one for upgrades.

John,

It looks like the first one, but I was hoping to find one with the wires already attached. If that does not exist, then the one in the first picture is still better than the one I have.

What is the best way to order one? Email to MTH? Telephone call to MTH? Buy one from one of our repair technicians?

I think the wires attached is a long shot, that's pretty locomotive specific.  I think you'll have to settle for the bare board and do the soldering yourself.

I suspect you can buy it from MTH or perhaps George has some in stock.

That makes sense. I sent George an email.

Thanks everyone for the information so far.