Greetings from the west coast of BC Canada. My Kato SD40-2 engine inexplicably stalls on the track . It will be running along happily and then just stop, and after a few seconds without me touching a thing it will just start going again. The light also goes out so it can’t be getting power intermittently? Happens at different non constant places on the track so it can’t be dirty track…maybe dirty wheels? Is there a temperature sensitive thermo-couple switch in the mechanism? Is there a loose connection? I would appreciate any trouble shooting hints. Thank you.
Some DCC decoders will shut themselves down when they over heat is there a decoder in there, After setting for a day how long will it run fine until it stalls, and does it last the same amount each time about, Now does this happen to any other loco’s? if not its probly not the track or the Dcc or DC system. If its just the loco then it probly a defective decoder or it could be jsut over heating.
Hello conrail92. thank you for your instant reply! This is DC only system. No decoder is in there. This happens only to this engine. The time it is affected is quite variable, but if I manually push it along it kicks into action. Have you ever heard of this happening to Kato engines or is it a general fault? Maybe I should try cleaning the wheels? Thanks again for your help.
ok the knocks out the dcc issues and the DC system issue, Try cleaning the wheels, but i couldnt see why it is the wheels cause if it was the wheels it would do it always and if it was the track it do it in certain areas. When the loco stalls do any other loco’s on the layout stop, if so it could be a short somewhere in the engine or track. Make sure you check everywhere for shorts when it stalls. use a volt meter when it stalls see if power is going through the track if not take the engine of the track then see if there power going through the track if theres is after you remove it then the engine could be shorting somewhere. If there still isnt power going through the track that means there could be a shorrt somehwere else. Run a few tests with the Volt meter see if it could be shorting somewhere
Also when it stalls is the loco or the motor hot?
You may have a problem with the Kato circuitboard. Their systems are only designed to handle around 12 volts. Any more than this and the circuit board will fry and exhibit the symptoms you mentioned. You may also have a problem with the contacts bewteen the trucks and the frame. There have been a number of discussions on the board and others about how to resolve this issue.
The Kato SD40-2’s used a strip contact pickup system instead of hard-wired trucks. It’s well known that those strips can warp and cause exactly the problems you are encountering.
That’s why Kato abandoned that system and went back to hard-wired trucks.
The only solution is to hard-wire them yourself.
Kato even makes a hard-wire conversion kit (part #968001) but for $10.00 USD per truck I’ll solder the wires myself.
Thank you for your advice and suggestions on how to fix my SD40-2. Sounds like you know what you are talking about. Did you have a similar problem? Will it be reasonably obvious what to solder when I look under the hood. I have a soldering iron and am not afraid to use it. I looked on Kato’s web site after reading your post and they make no mention of this…probably bad for marketing. How did you discover this problem? Thank you very much for your help. I am relieved that at least it doesn’t appear to be a burned out motor brush or something like that. Thanks again.
I would agree with Stevert 110%, had the same problem with mine after installing a decoder and it like to have driven me mad before I figured it out. I wired rhw strips that contact the axle ends directly to the decoder and no more problems. Tweet.
Wow…a DCC decoder overheating? What lead you to jump to this conclusion? My loco is stalling…hmm…your DCC decoder is overheating…let it rest for a day and try again. What a stupid responce. If you have been in this hobby for more than a month, you would know that the Kato sd40-2s are notorious for have this issue and it is a simple fix. Hard wire the pickups from the trucks to the light board. …over heating DCC chip…Ive heard it all.
Wow…a DCC decoder overheating? What lead you to jump to this conclusion? My loco is stalling…hmm…your DCC decoder is overheating…let it rest for a day and try again. What a stupid responce. If you have been in this hobby for more than a month, you would know that the Kato sd40-2s are notorious for have this issue and it is a simple fix. Hard wire the pickups from the trucks to the light board. …over heating DCC chip…Ive heard it all.
And the reason for your tone of superiority and degradation of another person trying to help is?
Doug,
The Kato SD40-2 pickup issues (there are actually two) were discussed extensively on both the Atlas forums and r.m.r (usenet), but that was quite some time ago. (I can find an r.m.r reference as far back as October 1999.)
The one issue Kato “admitted” to was that the vertical contact strips would not always make contact with the circuit board. They posted a fix on their Web site that consisted of re-bending the ends of those strips to better contact the circuit board. However, they may have taken that page down as I can’t seem to locate it now.
The other issue, which AFAIK Kato never officially acknowledged, was that the contact between the trucks and the strips along the frame was shaky at best. They would pass enough current to for the lights, but not enough for the motor. Of course, the circuit board contact “fix” would do nothing to help this situation.
However, hard-wiring the trucks directly to the circuit board (or decoder) fixes both these issues. Basically, you disassemble the truck and solder on a pickup wire between the front and middle axles. Repeat on all four pickups and you’re good to go.
Kato did have a photo of the replacement SD40-2 pickups with the pre-soldered wires on their Web site, but once again it seems to hav
Brian,
Interesting. When I previewed my post, the link worked, but after posting it didn’t. Tried to edit it, but it said the link was already there. Replaced it and it still didn’t work. Since I couldn’t figure out what was wrong, I deleted it altogether and just added the URL itself. Sorry for the problem.
Thank you very much for all your time and advice you have spent helping me with this problem. As you can imagine having a loco you like very much which runs without any other problem is frustrating and I very much appreciate your help as well as from others re this problem. Sure am glad I joined this forum. Thank you all [:D][tup]