I need some help. The middle truck on my three truck Shay just quit after running fine all summer. I'm running battery power with Airwire. I checked my wiring to the decoder board. The front and middle truck are wired together and the front truck is still running just fine. The front and middle truck have orange and green wires and are connected to the same terminals on the decoder. I removed them and reconnected but no luck. How do I trouble shoot the middle truck? I can't even figure out how to remove it from the mount.
Thanks,
Rex
I believe the trucks come off the same way as the later 2 truck ones.
Maybe my page will be of assistance:
http://www.elmassian.com/trains-mainmenu-27/motive-power-mods-aamp-tips-mainmenu-35/bachmann-motive-power-mainmenu-73/shay-mainmenu-81
Greg
Visit my site: http://www.elmassian.com - lots of tips on locos, rolling stock and more.
Click here for Greg's web site
Thanks Greg, I'll give it a try. How do I tell if the motor is bad or not once I get the bottom plate off?
Apply DC to the motor leads and see if it turns. Pretty rare that the motor gives out, more likely a broken wire.
Greg,
It turned out to be a jammed gear. Once I got it cleared it ran fine so it wasn't an electrical problem after all.
Great to hear. Not to be a spoiler, but did you find and correct the cause so it won't happen again?
Regards, Greg
I did not find the cause. I was trying to figure out how to get into the gear box/motor and all of a sudden it started up when I put power to it in reverse instead of forward. I'm thinking a jammed gear had to be the culprit but I have no idea what caused the jam.
Maybe one of the external driveshafts had jammed. Well, I'd run it carefully for a while, meaning make sure it's in your sight and you are on the throttle.
Always concerns me when something "fixes itself"
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