MTH PS1 stuck in neutral

[pbjwilson]

I know this has come up before. My Mth engine ran off the track and know is stuck in neutral. Anyone know how to get it back to normal. I'm using the MTH 750 transformer. Thanks

[lionelsoni]

Must...resist...temptation....;-)

[Anonymous]

FInd someone with a Z4000. If you can get a readout on what the loco thinks is going on you have a better shot at fixing it. You could try using the unlock nuetral setting (feature set 51?) followed by a factory reset 18. That's a lot of throttle pumps and button pushes.

[spankybird]

Try the factory reset 18. Follow the directions in your owners manual. ONe of my older PS1 engines does the same thing and the factory reset works for me.

tom

[mpzpw3]

Can you tell if the engine is stuck in neutral, or reset. When you power it up do you get 2 dings (or whatever), and sounds, or no dings, just sounds. To get to reset 18 I think the engine has to be in neutral, not reset, but I could be wrong. Have you tried replacing the battery with a known fully charged one? That seems to be the usual suggestion anyway.

[pbjwilson]

Hey thanks for the advice. So far I tried the reset 18 - no go. Put an old battery in that had little charge in it and it ran briefly. Charged up the battery some more and it doesnt run.

When I power up I get sounds no dings. When I hit the direction button it starts chuffing although the engine is sitting still. I think the gremlins are taking over the layout again. Will try a few more things and see what happens.

[pbjwilson]

O.K., I put the original battery in, powered up and I get the two dings, hit the direction button and nothing happens. I can get to the reset 18, then I hold the whistle control downand the bell sounds funny, hit the direction button and nothing happens. Is there something I'm doing wrong in the reset 18 mode?

[Anonymous]

You can't do an efective reset 18 until AFTER you unlock it from Nuetral, i.e. reset will not overide a lockout. The distorted bell sound like a weak battery. A NicD can not br tested for voltage unless it see's some kind of load. A neat dead battery will register a full charge on a meter unless it is acutally drawing current. A flash light battery is enough of a load to get a decent reading.

[mpzpw3]

Maybe try a fully charged alkaline battery?? I think it is okay to test with one. I am also wondering if the derailment may have caused a "hot spot" on one of the soldering joints, and it effectively became unsolered. Since you have the shell off already, inspect the solder joints closely. Look for any black spots, or any solder that looks discolered from the other solder joints. The top board just unplugs from the bottom board. You can remove the top board and inspect the bottom board more easily, and also, resetting the top board to the bottom board may solve the problem. These ideas may be useless in the end, but I am thinking start with the easy things first! One last suggestion, when the engine left the track, the pickup roller may have "arced" across the rails. This may have burnt the center rail pick-up roller enough to make the engine not notice the cycling of the transformer. Stranger things have happened...

[pbjwilson]

Problem solved!!!!!!!

After testing and reseting and this and that, I finally discovered the problem. The tether connection to the engine. I shot a small amount of contact cleaner into the female receptacle and connected it to the engine and all is well. Only took about three hours to figure that one out. I have three MTH steamers and this is the first time I've run across this situation. Oh well, learn something every day in this hobby. Thanks for all the input you guys. It kept me goin when I needed it. See you on Sunday Photo Fun.

[mpzpw3]

Now that is amusing!! I spent 3 months trying to figure out why my Santa Fe F-3s were behaving erraticlly. I tried everything, and finally by accident, discovered it was the tether causing the problems. I was assuming you were questioning a single-unit diesel engine, or I would have suggested the tether. Your 3 hours is a much better time then my 3 months, and am slightly embarressed that I offered advice. Glad your engine is working again!!!!