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Cannot figure out how to wire the horn and relay on my son's 218 Santa Fe Engine

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  • Member since
    October 2017
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Cannot figure out how to wire the horn and relay on my son's 218 Santa Fe Engine
Posted by Mike Garner on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 8:19 PM

Hello,

  I'm just getting back into the hobby after 30 years away.  Picked up a reasaonably nice Sante Fe 218 Alco this weekend and the horn relay was completely disconnected.  I've tested the horn with a direct connection to the battery and it works.  I know that my ZW's horn circut works, as it triggers my 2020's whistle.

 

That being said, I just can't figure out how to wire everything together.  I've looked at the wiring diagram at http://www.olsenstoy.com/cd/locos/loc200p2.pdf. If I'm reading this right, the positive terminal of the battery touches the battery bracket frame , which makes sense, as it's inslulated from the chassis.  The negative terminal touches a springy contact which is insulated from the bracket and has a wire coming off of it.  I've ensured that the insulation is good and that there are no shorts.  What doesn't make sense is that from the service diagram, it looks like the negative terminal wire connects to the terminal on the e-unit that is powered from the pickup rollers.

 

I've wired it just like this diagram and got nothing but an angry buzz from the horn relay when triggering it.  No sign of the contacts on the bottom of the relay closing.  I'm pretty sure something was wrong, as the battery seemed to be delivering a weak current to the lamp.  I've looked at the wiring dragrams for the older units that had the vertically mounted D cell to power the horn and they appear to be using the same type of relay, but are wired completely different.  Anybody have any guidance for me?

 

Thanks,

  Mike

Tags: 218 , horn , relay , Wiring

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