I recently purchased an older Williams J3A made in Korea, the unit appears to have no run time, with only minor surface corrosion, The lights and sound work , but motor will not respond . Does this motor have an E unit? There is a slide switch on the bottom under the cab that I think is the smoke unit. Any troubleshooting tips would be greatly appreciated , thanks , BILL
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It does have an electronic E unit. Mine does not have the original electronics so can't comment for sure about the switch function but I doubt it would hurt anything if you moved it. It may be to lock the engine in one direction or the other.
Pete
DCRU in the tender might be defective. I have the same problem with an early Williams SR PS4. The locomotive will operate with a Williams PRR E-6 tender, but not with its own tender. You might see if
any friends can loan you a Williams tender to check out the locomotive.
lewrail
If you can determine that the E Unit is defective, a modern Williams E Unit would work. The older Williams E Units had a similar design using relays to change direction but employed discrete circuit devices to change state rather that the IC on a modern Williams unit. The plus is it would be easier to repair if so inclined.
Pete
Thank you , for your responses, does anyone have a wiring diagram for this as I would like to keep its sound system operational, Bill
Not sure about the Williams steam engine but the diesel engines have a separate plug-in for the sound unit on the circuit board. You may have to replace the circuit board, see if Train World has a circuit board in stock as the Bachmann/Williams website prices are way too high. I have worked on several Williams diesel engines.
Lee Fritz
I am not familiar with the new Tru Blast Plus sounds but all previous Williams engines had independent sound and motor driver circuits. Even this one made in the early 1990s. I can check mine tonight for specifics but taking the shell off usually requires removing just 3 or 4 screws. Not really a big deal, just different from a die cast engine.
Pete
If you have an HO DC power pack unhook the existing motor leads and use the power pack hooked up to the motor to see if the motor is good. If it's. good then you hnow the problem is with the electronics.
Rod Miller
Title: "J3A 4-6-2". No. it's a Hudson - a 4-6-4.
I have several of the Williams brass engines from this era and they all have a common problem. The circuit board on the engine side of the tether has an issue with cold solder joints from the tether socket. This leads to the issue you describe. Try wiggling the tether plug while the power is on and see if the unit responds. If it does you need to retouch the solder joints of the female socket to its circuit board.
Rollamn
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