I recently began replacing the plastic wheelsets on my rolling stock with metal wheelsets from intermountain. I am using the brass insulated 33" wheelsets. Today I replaced the wheelsets on one of my cars and when I put it on the track, the sound loco I had running on the track turned off. When I looked at the controller (NCE Powercab), the display was dimmed and flickering. I found the trouble wheelset, and when I place it on the track, the axle gets hot. What does this mean? Is the wheelset not completely insulated? Also, is there any way I can fix it? Any help is greatly appreciated.
It sounds like you have a bad wheelset. The plastic insulator is more than likely broken and is causing an a short. As far as I know there isn’t a simple way to fix it. It’s best to discard the trouble wheelset and replace it with a new one. It’s not worth frying a decoder or other electronic hardware over an inexpensive wheelset.
Probably indeed it’s a bad wheelset, but just as a sanity check, does the car that shorted out have metal trucks? If so, you might just have one wheelset in the wrong way.
As said Richhotrain, I’ve installed literally hundreds of Intermountain wheelsets and have never experienced a problem. That is not to say there can’t be one, but I find it surprising.
That being said, if one runs a continuity check from one wheel to the other and its positive - that axle will hit the trash bin in record time.
I have seen similar problems. Check to see if the metal wheelset is touching a bottom-mounted metal weight on the car. should both sides of the wheelset touch at the same time, you will generate a short through the weight.
We had a member at my club have similar problems with a wheel set, not sure if they were your brand or not but it happens. Dont toss the wheels, they make a great load or add them off to the side of your loco shop.