Three MTH engine problems...

Steven MichaelOGR Forum Member

1. First ones pretty straight forward. PS2 SD40-2 shooting sparks from the wires the arrow points to. I took it apart and made sure the two weren't touching, but it continued to spark afterwards.

2. PS2 C40-8W acting very strange. When it's under load, after about a minute of running it begins alternating between desired speed and stop, making the switch about once every second. Also producing a bad smell, I took it apart and I **think** it's coming from the mother board.

3. PS3 C40-8W travels just a bit too slow. At 40 MPH it actually does 38 according to my trainspeed speedometer. It's just enough for it to fight with other MTH engines at track speed. Bad tach reader maybe?

Any ideas of the cause of these problems?

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5/11/169:02 PM

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HelichuckOGR Forum Member

On the first one, take the truck off and remove the black screw holding the ground wire to the truck. you can either replace the nlack screw with a silver one or file the bottom of the head of the black screw to allow good contact, and reuse it!

5/11/169:56 PM

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Barry BroskowitzOGR Forum Member MEMORIALIZED MEMBER

FYI...

None of these problems have anything at all to do with DCS. All 3 are problems with the subject engines.

5/11/1610:24 PM

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GGGOGR Forum Member

Just because wires not touching each other doesn't mean you can't have damaged insulation on the red wire that is sparking to chassis or truck. So re inspect wires.

2nd needs to go to a Tech. Continued running can damage board beyond repair, so be careful.

Third one needs wheels cleaned, pickups, lubrication. Test again. G

5/12/168:38 AM

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Steven MichaelOGR Forum Member

Helichuck posted:
On the first one, take the truck off and remove the black screw holding the ground wire to the truck. you can either replace the nlack screw with a silver one or file the bottom of the head of the black screw to allow good contact, and reuse it!

You're saying the blackening may be acting as insulation causing an arc?

5/12/169:39 AM

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Steven MichaelOGR Forum Member

GGG posted:
Just because wires not touching each other doesn't mean you can't have damaged insulation on the red wire that is sparking to chassis or truck. So re inspect wires.
2nd needs to go to a Tech. Continued running can damage board beyond repair, so be careful.
Third one needs wheels cleaned, pickups, lubrication. Test again. G

You think they might need some new shrink tube over the solder joints?

5/12/169:40 AM

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Steven MichaelOGR Forum Member

The two dash 8s are packed up for formal repair, the SD40-2 I am holding onto because I think I can get it fixed myself.

5/12/169:48 AM

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David MinarikOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

Steven Michael posted:
Helichuck posted:
On the first one, take the truck off and remove the black screw holding the ground wire to the truck. you can either replace the nlack screw with a silver one or file the bottom of the head of the black screw to allow good contact, and reuse it!
You're saying the blackening may be acting as insulation causing an arc?

Could be. Most likely a poor ground situation.

The Dash8 is a chain file problem. Load a different Dash8 chain file you will be fine.

Dave

5/12/169:49 AM

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Steven MichaelOGR Forum Member

I should also add that it sparks only when under a relatively heavy load

5/12/1611:51 AM

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Steven MichaelOGR Forum Member

Thanks Dave and Chuck, filing the screw head did the trick.

Sorry about the abrupt take off, it was being run conventionally with a TPC-400.