athearn 2-8-2 mikado wiring

[botangles]

I recently received an Athearn 2-8-2 mikado with the wires hanging loose out the back of the cab, not connected to a harness. There are six wires, is it possible to connect these wires to get the engine running, if so, what wires do I connect, or do I have to connect them back to a wiring harness, what kind of harness, and where to I get one? Thanks, I'm new at this.
wire colors: white,grey,black,red,orange,blue
P.S. I will not be running DCC, just DC

 

[Espeefan]

The Athearn Mike came with a JST plug (9 pin connector) with a dummy plug that the user could replace with a decoder. The decoder & harness slipped into the space in the tender. The easiest thing for you to do would be to solder in a hew JST harness (match the wire colors) and add the dummy plug back in. If it isn't in the box, Digitrax sells both the harness & the dummy plug, or if you have any friends with some of these in their junk box or spare parts drawer maybe the'll donate one to you...

 

[Espeefan]

The Athearn Mike came with a JST plug (9 pin connector) with a dummy plug that the user could replace with a decoder. The decoder & harness slipped into the space in the tender. The easiest thing for you to do would be to solder in a hew JST harness (match the wire colors) and add the dummy plug back in. If it isn't in the box, Digitrax sells both the harness & the dummy plug, or if you have any friends with some of these in their junk box or spare parts drawer maybe the'll donate one to you...

You could also solder the red & orange wires together, & the black & gray wires together, but you'd have no headlight. Without the model in front of me, that's about as far as I'd go with advice.

 

[botangles]

2-8-2 mikado wiring specs

Thanks for the reply espeefan: I will try your suggestion for soldering to get the engine running again. I would like to get the light working too: The wires are used as shown, if you could tell me which ones to solder to get the light working, I would quess blue and white. Thanks again

Gray- Motor negative
Orange-Motor positive
Red- Right rail pickup ( engineer side )
Black- Left rail pickup ( fireman side )
White- Forward light
Yellow- Reverse light ( which there isn't one )
Blue- Light common
Green- Function 1
Violet- Function 2

 

[Espeefan]

You're right, blue & white for the headlight. There should be a board in there that steps the voltage down. I've never owned one but I think that there is. Try the blue & white wires with low voltage first. If the headlight does take track voltage, just solder the blue & white wires to the red & black as well. You'll have a headlight all the time, but that would be OK with me.

Good luck!

 

[botangles]

lights not working

I connected the white wire (forward light) to the red and orange wires (positive wires) and the blue wire (light common, or neutral) to the black and grey wires (negative wires) and light still not working. Any other way to wire this to get light working? Thanks, Bill

 

[Espeefan]

One thought: Reverse the polarity. Blue to red & white to black. If it's an LED, it will only light if the polarity is correct. Also, try reading the contunity with a meter and make sure that you have a complete circut...no broken wire or damaged LED/Bulb/whatever.

 

[botangles]

tried every kind of connection

Just can't get the light to work, will check out connection tomorrow, the blue wire does seem a bit loose, that could be it. Now to take the shell off, I hear that's a major task. The good news, it runs smooth and quiet but only pulls a dozen cars max. If I get the shell off will add some weight to the front somehow. As you can tell I'm fairly new at this, but just love it. Thanks again for all you feedback and help. Bill W.