45 tonner

[rye]

i have a 45 tonner thats works sometime  is there a short in it ? hey as anyone hear from  this guy in the uk
[email protected]

[altterrain]

Danny is in Queensland, Australia ( that's what the .au means). He is frequently found on other fora like largescalecentral.com .

-Brian

[Loco Bill Canelos]

The 45 tonner uses plungers and springs to get power to and from the trucks.  In 95% of the cases one or more of these springs get overheated and melts down causing a loss of power either from the track to the circuit board or from the circuit board to the motors in the truck.  If one truck is working fine and the other is balking this is almost certainly the problem.  Sometime wiggling the unit from side to side will cause it to move and then stop when the wiggling stops, if this is the case it is definitely a cooked spring.   

The best way to fix the unit is to hardwire it by removing the springs and plungers and soldering flexible wire in place of the springs.   If you send the unit in for repair they will just replace the springs and the next time you derail the unit and have a short the springs will cook again. 

If you can trace a wire and have soldering skills you will be able do this fix.  Look where the plungers ends slide on the truck plate, solder a wire from that point on the plate to the corresponding  point where the plunger wire goes to the circuit board.   Repeat for all plungers and on both trucks and you will have an excellent running locomotive.  A bit tedious but well worth the results. 

Hope this helps.

[Danny Sheehan in Oz]

Rye, I have sent you an e-mail, explaining my new e-mail address, which bounced back from your e-mail address.
[email protected]

I have two 45 tonner Diesels, had trouble with one of mine, but Matthew Brown, was able to help me (Matthew OV).