2-6-6-2 and tenders issue

[Richard-tx]

I got my new 2-6-6-2 and have two issues.

1 - The front light does not work.  I figure that something isn't plugged in correctly.  What do I take apart to check for a loose or unplugged wire?

2-  The tenders (BAC-89831) that I bought for it refuse to program.  I am using a Easy-DCC system.   Any suggestions?

3 - If I decide to replace the decoders in the tenders, what is the wiring color code?

[jonathan]

Those two symptoms leads me to believe the decoder is plugged in backwards.  The loco will run, but won't program and the headlight doesn't work.  That has happened to me before.  Switching the decoder around was the answer.  Don't know if this is your problem, but worth a shot.

Regards,

Jonathan

[Richard-tx]

THe tenders are hard wired, not pluggable.  I will post pictures later today.

[richg]

All Bachmann tenders are not wired the same. Also, Bachmann does not use NMRA color codes for the wiring. Get your multimeter out and do some wire tracing. That is what I have done.
Follow the NMRA DCC wiring codes.

Rich

[wjstix]

THe tenders are hard wired, not pluggable.  I will post pictures later today.

A new 2-6-6-2 would come with a tender with an eight-pin "plug and play" receptacle . If the unit is "DCC-equipped" (or "sound equipped") it has a decoder already plugged into the receptacle. If you want to replace it, you pull the decoder out and plug the new one in.

As noted, Bachmann tenders aren't all wired the same. I'd try the engine with the original tender first and see if that works. If it does, it may turn out that the easiest way to change tenders is to disconnect the two wires going to the tender trucks from the lightboard/decoder assembly, and remove the whole thing from the original tender. Then remove the lightboard/decoder assembly from the new tender, and put in the "guts" from the original tender. Connect up the two wires to the two trucks and it should work fine.

[Richard-tx]

As a follow up I talked to Bachmann customer service and the replacement tender that I have is not plug compatible with the 2-6-6-2 engine.  So the easiest solution is to take the guts out of the original tender and fit it into the replacement tender. 

As far as the front light not working, that will be fixed.   It will be 4-6 weeks for the repair according to the postcard.  Replacing the front light is not an easy job.  Almost nothing is easy on that locomotive.

[rogertra]

When it comes to tender swaps, the simple rule to follow is: -

The circuit board that came with the original tender should always, always, always, always be put into the new tender.  The circuit board always, always, always. always stays with the locomotive and 100% of the time, this works.  Yes, you may need to do a little kitbashing of the new tender as Bachmann this annoying habit of not using standard pin connections across the board that little kitbashing is much easier than any other method of swapping tenders.

Yes, some tenders are swappable by using the same circuit board by why bother to find out?  Just swap circuit boards, it's so easy.