Gentleman, I just recently finished up installing a digitrax DH123D in my bachman spectrum f-unit. The LED headlight I installed works fine but the unit won't move unless I remove the shell and physically rotate the flywheel by finger. The unit will then slowly start to move and as it continues to run, the better it runs as long as its warmed up. After letting it sit overnight or up to a week, I must repeat the same procedure to get it running again. Is the motor toast or do I have the wrong "start up" voltage selected??
Thanks in advance,
Rich
Rich:
Did the engine run properly before you put the decoder in? If it took a lot of throttle to start moving on DC power then one possibility is that the grease in the gear boxes has dried out.
If you can disconnect the drive shafts you will be able to spin the motor by itself. Obviously there should be very little resistance. If it turns freely then take a close look at the gears and the condition of the grease. As a matter of fact, cleaning and re-greasing the gears should be done every so often anyhow.
I would not start adjusting start voltage until you are sure the problem is not mechanical. That could be a recipe for letting the smoke out of the decoder because you will be pushing it to or past its limits.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Rich,
As Dave suggests make sure you don't a physical/mechanical problem first. I have that same decoder in two different Athearn SD40-2's. Raising the start voltage on CV 2 to 70 did the trick.
There was a recent thread on this where another poster also had the same problem with his Athearn with the decoder model you have. Check out that thread here.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/215579.aspx
UPinCT:
Hopefully you are right when you suggest that a higher start voltage is all that is needed. Based on your link it is neccessary to up the start voltage regardless of other factors.
The thing that caught my eye was the fact that the locomotive improved its performance as it warmed up. How 'cold' the locomotive actually was before running is unknown. If it was really cold then even new grease would be thicker.
hon30critter UPinCT: The thing that caught my eye was the fact that the locomotive improved its performance as it warmed up. How 'cold' the locomotive actually was before running is unknown. If it was really cold then even new grease would be thicker. Dave
If the grease has dried out,,,,it gets like dried out toothpaste in a tube,,,,,,very stiff, hard to move. Some lithium based greases exhibit this behavior, then looses up as they reconstitute. From what I've seen, the grease in a lot of model trains is the same way
It needs to be scrubbed out and replaced every now and then
Karl
NCE über alles!
The grease may not be dried out. It might simply be the cheap stuff the Bachmann factory uses doesn't work below a certain temp. I have a couple of old second-hand Athearns that exhibit similar behavior, as my basement layout room can be rather cool when the lights are off and I first start up.
What you want to get is a tube of LaBelle #106 grease. A tube can last a lifetime, depending on how big your roster is. It's got Teflon and is plastic-compatible, made specifically for model trains. As others have already advised, clean up the geartrain and get that old gunk out, then lube with 106. That should solve the problem.
Adjusting CV 2 may be part of the solution, but be careful as it can let the smoke out if you don't have the loco running good again on DC first; sometimes there's another issue at play than thickened lube.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Thanks for the replies guys. The first thing I will try is removing the drive shafts to see if the motor will spool up. Then I will check the gear boxes for the dried up grease and then give them the once over. This loco belongs to my dad and we been trying to get it running on a consistent basis but not having much luck.
Thanks,
Hi Rich,
I just wanted to be clear. Dave and others have pointed to grease. As I said in my first post make sure there is no physical/mechanical problem first before you adjust any CV's. So see if you can get it running smooth before resorting to programming. But having said that you may indeed have two problems, poor quality/dried out grease and a decoder that many users have had a problem with until they raised the starting voltage on CV2.
Good Luck and let us know how you make out, Derek