Ok so I started to rebuild an athern gp-9 to convert it to dcc. I bought some geared trucks on ebay that had all the detail stuff on them. I did not like the metal truck sideframes not enough detail. So after getting everything together I wired it like the dcc tutorial from last week. I figured I would be smart and try it without the decoder because it has to run good without it first right. Well it didn't. It was real jerky and lost power quickly. Seemed like when I gave it more throttle it bogged out more. I check everything and it all seemed wired properly(isolated from frame to motor). I did a truck test by lifting one side of engine so just one set of trucks was on the track. Worked ok. Did it to the other set of trucks and got nothing. I have the L's wired to the top of the motor and have the light bracket wired to the bottom of the motor. Shouldn't both trucks get power. The other thing I see is a lot of sparking from the truck mounting point of the frame back to the brass flywheel. Why is that? I even put the metal trucks back on and had the same problems. It seemed to run a bit better if I eliminated one set of power from one of the trucks. I thought having both wired in was for better electrical reliability? Can anyone help out a lost soul?
Jktrains if you read this pm me your phone number I seemed to have misplaced it in the move.
alco's forever!!!!! Majoring in HO scale Minorig in O scale:)
Your second sentence makes me ask a couple questions: The trucks you bought off Ebay, are they Athearn trucks that some added detail? If not, do you know who they're made by?
For troubleshooting, the easiest way is to remove the trucks completely from the locomotive, including the worm attached to the motor shaft. Set each truck, by itself on a section of track and push it back and forth without pressing down on it. Do the wheels turn freely? If the wheels turn freely, take an ohmmeter and attach one lead to the metal "L" on the top of the truck, then touch the other lead to the metal plate on top of the truck that the frame sits on. This should show an open (infinate). Touch the lead to the wheels on one side, then the other to see which side is connected to the "L" It should be the same side when you line the trucks up the way they're installed on the locvo.
Yes, both trucks should pick up power with the same side of wheels bringing power to the frame, and to the L respectively.
There shouldn't be any sparking to the flywheel what so ever. Check to see if the flywheel is touching something metal, like a contact strap or something. The flywheel must not touch one of the L's. You can use your volt/ohmeter to check this too. The bottom motor lead is connected to the frame, and that means the armature and flywheel are also connected to the frame. Therefore, if the armature makes contact with one of the L's, it causes a short.
You might also try taking it off the track and disconnecting the "L's", and then connect the motor directly to the track with an alligator lead to top of motor and another aligator lead to the frame. Operate the throttle and see how the motor runs in both directions. If it's OK, then you may have one truck backwards...somehow.
Just a thought, I don't know if it's even possible for a truck to be backwards.
Good luck,
Bill
Thank you everyone for the reply. Since this was supposed to be a dcc conversion i did cut off the prongs on the bottom of the motor and then i layed down some liquid electrical tape over the contact on the frame. I do not see anywhere where the flywheel comes in contact with anything metal but i will check again. Trucks move freely on their own on the track that was part of the reason i replaced them was because the metal trucks made an awful racket running in one direction. I did test the motor just to the track with no trucks and it seemed to work good. Actually i believe it worked good when i bought it before i started messing with it. But the shell was on and the wheels were what looked like white metal cast wheels another reason for the change. The other trucks were athern trucks brand new in the package with no details added yet.
After hanging some blinds today maybe i will rip back into it and check it out.
Thanks again