Something's messed up, me or my CF7. I tore down an Athearn CF7 to fix a motor noise. It went beyond the typical Athearn growl, and when I tore down the motor, I noticed what seemed like rough spots in the armature which may have been scraping the magnets. Anyway, when I fixed the rough spots, I experimented and flopped the magnets both up and down and front to back and noticed the motor ran much quieter afterwords. Of course, the loco ran in the opposite direction, but since I was just testing that was okay and flopped the magnets back to what I thought was the original orientation.
Now, the lights work in the opposite direction the loco is traveling, which is back to being the same direction as all of my other locos.
I switched the circuit board to another CF7, and the lights operated directionally consistant with that loco, so the problem must be with the motor and the orientation of the magnets on the original loco, right? I'm obviously no electronics expert, but I can't understand how the loco can travel in the proper direction as my other locos, but the lights lighting in the opposite direction despite the assumption there is nothing wrong with the circuit board. What am I missing?
Thanks,
Doug
- Douglas