Today my new loco arrived. It’s a brand-new, RTR Athearn, so it should be ready to go. However, when I set up a test length of track, it had problems actually moving. The light lit up just fine, but to get it to actually move I had to push down on the top gently. Take my hand away, it stops. My test track is open ended, but my other locos ran just fine, so it shouldn’t be a connection problem. Has anyone had problems like this or know of any troubleshooting methods? I perused a few pages of search results but couldn’t find anything relevant.
Take the shell off and do the test again, if anything is loose it will be noticeable when you press down…
There’s definitely a loose connection or two in there. I have one that the wires to both trucks were soldered on so badly that they literally fell off when I touched them.
Also, older Athearn RTR’s have been known to have paint overspray interfere with electrical conductivity from the trucks to the electronics board. Check to make sure there is no paint overspray between the weights and the frame.
Tilden
Sadly, I can’t get the shell off the frame. The instructions say something about squeezing the body and lifting it off, but I’m just not comfortable doing that. It’s running somewhat better after I ran it for a minute or two (oddly, it runs noticably better in reverse). I’m wondering if it just needed to be broken in some?
It’s always a good idea to break them in. Unless you here weird noises when running them that is!
Magnus
You squeeze together about halfway along the long hood and lift up on the shell. The newer locos have several screws. It isn’t hard to deshell an athearn…
I had a similar problem with a new Dash 9 from Athearn, finally I found out that the gears were full of burs and had to be grind down with a file.
The only thing I get out of that is some sore fingertips. If it keeps up I might just have to take it to the LHS.
Good news! After much frustration and words I can’t repeat here, I finally got the shell off. Turns out there are some hooks underneath I can use in the future to get it off easier.
I also found my problem. The strip of metal from the motor to the trucks was bent at the wrong angle, so they barely connected. I took my pliers and bent them up at the proper angle and now it runs amazingly well. Picture of the problem spot included.
A fix is to run jumper wires from that tower to the top of the motor…same for the back. Bending the stamped steal strip is just a bandade, soldering jumper wires will give you decades of reliable operation.
David B
[#ditto]
Do yourself a favor, trash the clip and solder a stranded wire in it’s place to both the front and back.
That’s a good idea, thanks, both of you! I’ll have to do that to all my locos one of these days.