tender shorts out...why?

[mikebonellisr]

I just placed a brass 2-8-2 on the layout that I had a sound decoder installed in,dialed in address 03 and everything seemed to work fine...lights,bell,whistle.I gave it a little power to start syncronizeing the chuff,it went about a inch and shorted out.As I played around with it I found that the short was in the tender.If I lift the front truck off the track a little,the power re-sets,as soon as I place it back,it shorts out.I've swiveled the truck both ways so that the insulated wheels are on the right side or left side,it still shorted out.I did the same with the rear truck...both front and rear on the left or right ,no difference.The only thing that I can think might be causeing a problem is that I blackend the tender wheels and axels with neo-lube...could that conduct electricity enough to negate the insulated wheels,or what else might I look for?

[nfmisso]

First remove the decoder (you do not want to let the smoke out), then get out your multimeter and start probing.

[Anonymous]

Does the front truck have a wheel set that is reversed. It would be easy to have one of them backwards if you had them out. Make sure the insulated wheels on both tender trucks are on the same side as the contact wheels on the locomotive.

[bogp40]

First thing to check is the tender trucks. Many times w/ brass the brake shoes can short against the wheel tread. Can be difficult to find, because lifting the tender the wheels drop a bit showing adaquate clearance. Need to turn upsidedown and look for problems.
Bob K.

[mikebonellisr]

Thank you DeSchane,one of the wheel sets was in backwards.I don't know how I missed it.I thought that was one of the first things that I checked.It helps to get away from the problem and then return fresh.Once I had checked the wheel sets and everything SEEMED ok,I went on to other possibilites.