Visionline Challenger Short

i would take pictures with engine apart and post them here and the experts here will give you there experienced opinions ! are you sure you seated the module pins on the mother board correctly to keep them from shorting ! if you keep powering up the engine up you WILL BURN  UP THE BOARDS AND COULD BE A VERY EXPENSIVE REPAIR ! JUST ASK ! ALEX M. WHO SPECIALIZES in Lionel engine repair !

Alex M | O Gauge Railroading On Line Forum (ogaugerr.com)

An ounce of preventtion is worth a pound of CURE !

Alan

This is clearly a "hands-on" problem.  Any number of things can be shorting, that model has tons of stuff happening under the hood.

Thanks Alan and gunrunnerjohn for you input on this. I tried sending Alex a message thru his email address listed on his profile but it was returned as undeliverable. Does anyone happen to have his email address so I can contact him? Thanks Gary

@Gary Marsh posted:

Thanks Alan and gunrunnerjohn for you input on this. I tried sending Alex a message thru his email address listed on his profile but it was returned as undeliverable. Does anyone happen to have his email address so I can contact him? Thanks Gary

His profile has a good email address, so it was something else.  I sent him email to that address regularly, AAMOF, just about five minutes ago!

Here a some pictures of the inside with the shell off. The engine works until you install the screws under the cab. If I lift the cab up about 1/16 of on inch it fine but I want to get this fixed I don't want to worry about doing damage to all the boards and burning it up.

Like I said, it's busy in there, ten pounds of xxx in a five pound bag!

When I run up against something like this, I lay the shell out and carefully arrange the stuff so there's no "lumps" and it appears that the shell will fit.  Usually, it's something like that big 8-pin connector pressing down and either flexing boards, or supports.  You may have to shift stuff slightly, and also consider zip-tying it a couple of places to keep them where you want them.

Hi Gary

I just emailed you , but with the guys said above is absolutely correct! This engine has more electronics, and wiring then pretty much any engine Lionel has produced. It’s actually more complicated then the VL Big Boy. Unfortunately trying to locate this short is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. My guess would be its a pinched wire or a protruding solder joint from a circuit board shorting out.

I haven’t serviced  a challenger in quite a while , but in the pictures here , I think there’s suppose to be an insulator over the board ( PCB Regulator) i  took pictures of. I think there might be exposed solder joints on this board. Also there’s a wire with heat shrink Im pointing to. Make sure that’s not squashed.

I told you Gary Alex M would be very helpful and he has service Lionell Visonline engines that most Technicians would have gave up on ! He's the best !

Alan Mancus

I hope Gary got a really good deal on this. Otherwise, if it was sold with a return policy. It might be wise to do so.

Hi Alex and Rick I did get a real good deal on it that's why I bought it. I also have the new Visionline Challenger 3717 1931280. I did follow some ideas from gunrunnerjohn and Alex M and I moved the wires around and got the shell back on so now it's running great. I did have problem with the engine speaker wire coming unplugged from the tender so I put a zippy tie on it to hold it in place. I contacted Alex M for help so if something happens I'll send it to him to see what he can do for it in the future. Thanks everyone for your help and advice on this. I'm really Thankful the the OGR Forum is here for the help I've gotten on this.

Gary