Roundhouse HO Shay front truck not working

[NickelPlateGrant]

Hi, I'm currently having an issue with a Roundhouse/MDC 2-truck Shay. I disassembled it to fix the gear, in the gearbox, that was loose on its axle, preventing it from moving the locomotive. I did this, and I installed a Soundtraxx TSU-1000 in the tender. I then powered up the shay on DCC, but the shay immediatley shorted out, creating a "cricket" sounding noise coming from the front truck. I assumed the electricity wasn't flowing, so I took off the truck, made sure everything was in place (everything was...), and put it back on. Then, I turned it on, and it shorted out again. This repeated a few times..

Any help with this issue will be highly appreciated, thanks.

[RR_Mel]

Having four MDC Shays for many years and knowing how the power pickup is done just getting one to work can be a task.  As for help just keep looking for problems in the wipers.

 

If it is an older one with the DC71 motor it needs to have the DCC kit installed on the Pitman motor or it will fry the decoder.

 

There is a great book on building a MDC Shays by Jeff Johnston.

 

https://openlibrary.org/books/OL677628M/The_MDC_Shay_handbook

 

It can be a bit pricy but excellent information.

 

Mel

 

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

 

 

[snjroy]

Hi there. It could be many things, obviously. And it sounds like you are dealing with mechanical and electrical issues. I would remove the decoder, fix the gear problem in dc mode, and after successfully doing that, install the decoder. The short is probably the result of your decoder installation. 

Simon