Hard Knox University...DIY repairs last night.

[Craignor]

Jim,

Try calling Ron or Jim at Engine House Hobbies in Gaithersburg, Md.

They are miracle workers...the best repair service I have ever seen.

They are a MegaStation for MTH, and can probably get you back in order for a reasonable fee.

[Anonymous]

Craig,

          Don't feel bad.  I also made more than enough mistakes.  I let an older MTH smoke unit ( the type with the electronics on the smoke unit) get dry, and I had a small flamethrower.  If the paint inside the stack wasn't baked at the factory, it sure is baked now!  When I was soldering new heating elements to the board,  I used too much heat and lifted the traces and contact pads.  In an attempt to fix this problem, I cut thru all of the traces on the board ( same traces you cut during a PS2 upgrade) thinking I could connect the heaters to the fan.  Little did I know that I separated the components on the board from one another.  So now, I have an engine that won't smoke, and I can't find another smoke unit.  At least your story has a somewhat better ending!

[Craignor]

Lionroar,

Yes, by mistake, I left the blow dryer on the kitchen counter. The next morning the first thing my wife said to me was "what were you doing with my hair dryer last night???" I think my reply about the shrink tubing confused her...I am not sure if she really bought it.

Plus, I painted a rosey picture of my DIY efforts...they are not always sucessful.

Here is one that went really bad:

My sons MTH Premier BNSF SD60 with Proto 2 stopped smoking. I took apart the smoke unit suspecting a bad fan impeller. I then hooked up leads between my test track and the inputs on the fan motor to see if it worked. I turned up the juice a BAM! I smoked the boards.

I took the loco to a dealer for the repair. The loco was out of waranty, the new board and installation cost me $150.

Reflection:

In this hobby, you need to know a really good repair guy.

 

 

[Anonymous]

My wife fell asleep early last night

...

after a few minutes with my wife's blow dryer...

Two key phrases here Craig!

I'm wondering what wife's thought would have been had she seen you sneaking down to the basement with said blow dryer!

LOL!

Excellent post!  Nice to hear that someone can figure these things out!  Every time I try to do something I am either too stingy on the lube, knock a wire loose and can't figure out where it went, or my contacts dryup and I can't see what I am doing!

I did an EOB Upgrade on a TMCC engine a few weeks ago, had it all wired up and ready to go - set it on the track, powered up, programmed the codes per the instructions, and nothing... no change to speed control... after 2 hours of testing I gave up, took out the board and sent it back... now I can't send the engine in to have the upgrade done (due to house purchase today), so it will be a while before the Speed Control can be installed... but in a few months I do get to start construction on the new train room!

I can handle the big stuff - it's this miniature stuff that gets me!

[darianj]

No satisfaction like doing the repair yourself!  Good Job!

[Jumijo]

Craig,

As a newbie solderer myself, your repair post was great to read!

Jim 

[Craignor]

Chris,

Good job on the tender repair.

[wchrisyoung]

Craig,

It is always nice to do repairs yourself.   Beside the satisifaction, you save time waiting for them to be repaired at the LHS.   Last week, I fixed my tender which runs the trainsounds for one of my convential Lionel starter sets.    It was nice to hear the sounds again.  This was my first engine I had with sounds after reentering in the hobby.   

 

Chris  

[Craignor]

Marty,

Please...you will start a scandal.

I simplified the process in my explanation above.

The initial steps were diagnosis, a call to MTH's Parts Department, Midge requesting a fax of my sales receipt for the free waranty parts, me finding the darn receipt, faxing the receipt, and then waiting for the parts. Midge as always delivered the goods, it probably took a week to get the parts, start to finish. Not bad, it gave me time to procrastinate and ruminate over the looming repair.

[MartyE]

What was Midge from MTH doing up at that hour?  And just how did she get you those parts so fast?

[underworld]

Congratulations on the free repairs! It does feel good when you can get things like that done yourself.

 

underworld

[dwiemer]

Thanks for the above.

Dennis

[Craignor]

Folks,

My wife fell asleep early last night, so I went down to the basement and spent a few hours repairing two items that had been relegated to the repair que on my work bench.

 1. K-Line Scale Mikado. Problem: the front marker lights recently began to flash out signals in morse code after 40 minutes of run time. I removed the shell, and inspected the interior bird's nest of wires...I found a wire with some insulation missing leading upto the markers. Solution: I put some electric tape over the bare spot, it tested out ok, screwed it back together, and put it on the layout and voila...no marker lights at all. I opened her up again this time I noticed a wire had pulled off at the junction with a resistor...did I do this or was this the problem all along? Doesnt matter...I stripped off the old insulation from the junction, got out the soldering pencil ( I am a newbie solderer, and very intimidated by it) and made the repair, then I got out some of the shrinking tube stuff and covered it over with the tube, after a few minutes with my wife's blow dryer, the patch is as tight as a drum. Tested out ok, screwed it all back together, took to the layout...voila...sucess!!! 

 2. MTH Altoona Brewery. Problem: the smoke unit stopped working a few weeks ago. I inspected the smoke unit and observed the fan/impeller not spinning at all, and the wicking was burnt up. I called MTH (Midge) and she sent me more wicking and a new impeller (fan) for free, a few years ago I ran into the same problem with a steamer, a good motor with a stripped impeller. Solution: replaced the impeller, replaced the wicking, soldered back on a couple wires that detached during the repair(more soldering!). I added smoke fluid, fired it up...voila...good as new and back on the layout!

Cost of both repairs...$0

Satisfaction of fixing them myself...$1,000,000

Reflections:

In this hobby it is very important to be handy, to have a good selection of tools, to have a good work bench with a test track, and to have lots of patience.

Having a layout with many locos and accessories can mean spending lots of time repairing things. I try to remember this when I am thinking of buying another loco.