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Bachmann class 37 dead as a dodo


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  • RMweb Gold

Hi all,

 

I bought a model of 37514 21pin in the trainload metals livery about 2 years ago brand new I think it was from Ian Allan in Birmingham but can be certain.

And I decided to bring it out of store and give it a run on the layout so I popped in a Bachamnn 21pin 4 function decoder also brand new and put it on the layout to write the address through my powercab handset.

It was dead as a dodo apart from a very quiet humming noise coming form the loco itself and on the Powercab handset it displayed "circuit short" I've removed the decoder and put the blanking plate back in tried it on DC and it's the same but the humming is a little bit louder.

I've tried the decoder I used in another loco and that work perfectly.

I'm now racking my brains to work out what the cause can be as I've checked all the wiring and on the chassis of the loco to see if there's an obvious short but I can't find anything wrong.

 

 

Does anybody on here have any ideas what I could do to get the loco running ?

 

 

Cheers 

 

Colin

 

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  • RMweb Gold

Check no stray strands where they attach to the board and on the motor connections. I've had a short before where two stray wires were touching a chassis block causing it. If you've got a meter you can take the blanking plate out and treat the bogies and chassis seperately to narrow it down.

You will naturally get a short across the motor so it pays to unclip one wire to it if there's nothing wrong with the bogie side.

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 I would disconnect the bogie pickups and try the motor alone, if there is no issue with the motor then the problem is either the circuit board or wiring from the bogie pickups. Hope this is of some help.

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Whilst I have had the odd Bach loco with a wiring fault, the fact the motor hums suggests that it is getting power but not able to turn.  As suggested above - If you can drop the drive shafts and check the motor spinning this would be good check.  Could also try to turn drive shafts by hand to see if they are obviously binding.  Could be wrong...

 

M

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Agree re checking the drive shafts.  I had a type 4 where for whatever the reason one of the drive shafts had dropped out and I do mean "whatever the reason".  Put it back which was rather fun and it has run OK ever since.  I have no idea why it dropped out.

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also don't forget that if the loco has been sat for a long time, as the original grease dries it will thicken and solidfy so you may have to carefully strip down the gear trains and clean and relubricate them. Also relubrcate any bearings, motor ends, drive shafts, geartowers and wheel sets.

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  • RMweb Gold

I'd just like thank everyone for all the tips to get this loco running again, I managed to strip the loco down this morning and checked the gears and they appeared to be fine then I had a look at the circuit board and behold there was a couple wires that had been put on the wrong tabs for instance the pick up wires from the radiator end bogie had been attached to the M+ an M- tabs and the wires from the motor had been attached to the L and R tabs now they've swapped over the loco runs beautifully although it's a bit slower than normal.

I have only checked this on the layout with a decoder fitted but I'm happy with it to be honest.

 

So once again thank you all for the tips to get this loco running again.

 

Cheers 

 

Colin

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