Intermittent problem with DZ1000 switch machine

[MTsteamfan]

I am having trouble with one out of ten DZ1000s, of course it's the one that's hardest to get to. It's factory mounted on a Ross switch. Actually I don't think the motor itself is the problem (please read on)

What happens is, it works fine switching to turnout, but on switching back to "thru," the sound is sometimes anemic, like it's not getting enough power, and the points stop halfway thrown. What's maddening is, I can throw the switch 20 times and it'll be fine, but on the 21st try the problem comes up.

I figured the machine itself was the problem but after swapping it out, the problem remains. All the wiring APPEARS to be fine. Can anyone think of something I could be overlooking?

It's wired into a Lionel SC2 and also is set up for non-derailing operation, if that makes any difference. My switches are all wired into an independent transformer and all the other switches work fine. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[cheech]

have you checked the wiring to the sc-2. the poblem may be the way one of the wires is locked into the sc-2 terminal.

[Anonymous]

No, it's probably not your wiring. This is a DZ1000 problem. I had a bunch of them that did this before I switched them out for the new DZ2500, which dtill kind of does this sort of, sometimes, but not nearly as bad as the DZ1000. I spoke to Dennis Zander at Z-Stuff (you should call him too, he's very nice and will try to help you). He said he thought that what was happening is that the points throw very quickly and that they go all the way to the other side, and then bounce back half way across to the middle. He said the problem was that they were getting too much power. I have the switch motors hooked up to a conventionally run modern ZW transformer at about 15 volts. I looked at my switches and looked and looked and could not convince my self that he was right. Cutting the power down to less than 15 volts made them not work at all. Plus, I was hearing and seeing what you describe, not that the points were going all the way over and then coming part of the way back. At about that point in time, he came out with the DZ2500 and I wanted to upgrade anyway, so I took all my DZ1000 motors off my Ross switches and sent them in for the upgrade to DZ2500. I would call Dennis, 585-377-0925, and ask for some advice.