My ditch lights keeps on burning out on my SD70 Athearn Geneses as soon as i turn on the power.What is going on.
I think we need more information:
Are you running DC or DCC ???
If DCC, what system and what DCC decoder are you using ???
If DC, what power pack are you using ???
The regular lights stay lit the ditch lights are the only ones that burn out.Using DC MRC 9500.
I don’t know what your problem in a DC context is, but I know that if you convert to DCC you have to change the headlights. Why don’t you send an e-mail to Athearn. They are pretty good at responding to e-mail messages.
I had that problem with the first one i bought…a CP SD70I.
the problem was that when i installed the lights, the plastic covers on the wires was pulled back a bit and the wires were touching. be sure to check all your wires and make sure that none of them are touching.
Hi I have Two SD75’s. after running for a few days the lights went on them too. but the replacements that Geneses sent me where a little different, and they are still going. And I use normal DC power. Maybe you could try to get the new ones they now use.
The ditch lights use a 1.5 volt bulb. If you wired them correctly, there should be no problem because the internal circuit board regulates the voltage; however, if you get the wires to the ditch lights crossed and wind up having them in parallel instead of series, you are feeding them too much voltage. The ditch lights have to be wired so the current passes through both bulbs, in effect creating a 3 volt bulb.
Check to make sure you have the leads for the ditch lights connected to the same place as the headlight leads. I made the mistake of hooking up the ditch lights to the motor terminals, the higher voltage caused the light bulbs to burn out in less than a second.
I hope this info helps.
Josh Ziegler
Spokane, WA