Trix Big Boy trouble Help (2)

[hdtvnut]

I had this experience with my Trix:  I removed the tender six-axle truck cover and the wheel sets for cleaning.  I was careful to replace the wheelsets correctly (so I thought), but the engine ran poorly, shorting out frequently.  I could not see anything wrong, nor measure anything with my ohmmeter.  Finally I saw that one of the wheelsets was installed with the pickup fingers on the wrong side of a wheel.  This is very easy to do, and very hard to see.

Hope that helps.

Hal

 

[selector]

Except that I am apparently wrong, but I appreciate your reply.  

That must be it.  A bare portion of some transmitting metal is making contact with the frame or the running gear somehow, and it seems to be when you replace the shell (?)  I had a problem with a BLI Niagara 4-8-4 that confounded me until I removed the rear truck under the cab.  That solved my short.  But not the problem.  I found that a tensioning spring was making contact with the lead axle...of all things, and that caused the shorting.  I had to do some frustrating tweaking over about two hours until I finally figured out I had to smack the rivet that held the tine to which the tension spring was mounted forward.  That tightened the whole doin'zes and and my shorts were history.  I hope you can track it down.  Open your mind and start from one end, top to bottom, and work your way back.

-Crandell

[Railcon44]

Thanks Selector you were a big help too!
Railcon44

[Railcon44]

Thanks Bill,

I did what you said to do and the problem seems to be in the engine and i have been having deep thoughts that it was the engine all along. Now i unscrewed the driver cover on the front and rear engines and pulled the covers up so the pickup shoes were not touching the wheels, used my ohm meter and put one probe to one wheel and the other to the opposite wheel, no voltage showing. Now i put the covers back on and pickup shoes back in place and done the wheel test again. The meter goes nuts to the end of the scale. Do you think that maybe the wire attached to the pickup shoe is somehow touching the frame when the cover is all the way down?
Railcon44

[selector]

I still feel it is a re-assembly problem, and likely to be something inserted incorrectly into position.  Tender truck axles are a bear that way.

[Bill54]

I would separate the engine from the tender.  Take the tender off the tracks then apply power.  If you don't get a short you know the problem is in the tender.  If it shorts you know the engine has a problem. 

Check the tender also by putting it on the track and taking off the engine.  Apply power and check for shorts.  If no short you know it's in the engine.  If it still shorts you've got something assembled wrong in the tender.

Hopefully only one or the other has a short.

Bill

[tstage]

Douglas,

FYI: It may be more advantageous (and cause less clutter) if you included this as an addendum post in your original thread.  Folks will sometimes change the title by adding something like "Update" to the original title to indicate that there is new information or news that's different from the original inquiry.

Tom

[Railcon44]

First,
I would like to say thank you to the two fella's that responded, Thank You! Now this is what i have done so far. First i put the engine back on the track thinking that maybe it just needed to dry out a little because of the alcohol i used to clean all the oil off, but it still shorted out as soon as i turned the power to the track on.
Oh! i have a digitrax super chief with a DT 400 hand held if thats any help here. Now i have strip the engine and the tender down and looked at ever wire and circuit board and also the wiring between the engine and the tender OK. I have run my tester and check the wires, the circuit boards, everything looks good there. I don't know, i'm stump!
Railcon44