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OK so here is the deal I know athearn has kinda went down hill in the past years but maybe someone can help me out. I got a RTR SD-50 and it was running great. no tonight it started running like crap. Thought the wheels were dirty and of course they are, clean the back ones and get to the front and nothing....... Take it apart and found a broke solder, fixed it but still no power from the front truck...... I am lost
If you have a multimeter, check for continuity from each wheel to the metal tab the wire is soldered on. I have had a couple where the brass bearings that hold the axel to the metal plate on the side of the truck have tarnished & I had to polish the bearings to restore electrical continuity.
I have had issues such as this in the past. After taking apart the engine I found the "clips" Athearn love to use always has connectivity issues. I removed the wires from those and soldered the wire directly to the metal clips on the motor and trucks directly and the issue I was having stopped. This might help out...
Over the last number of years, Athearn has started to paint the metal side plates on the trucks black so they are less visible. This paint also gets inside the square slots the bronze axle journals seat in and insulates them from conducting.
Remove the axle sets and using an x-acto knife, scrape the inside surfaces of those square slots to remove any remaining paint. While you have the axle sets out, make sure the bronze bearings themselves are clean as well.
I've found this to solve problems like you are experiencing many times.
Ok I did the wire trick on it and WOW so much better!!!!!!!! But one thing I do notice is every once and a while one of the front wheels will pop down off the track. its not really a big deal cause it will work its way back on but I am just trying to figure out if by putting the wires in there i lost some turning radius, I did do both wires left and right on both ends. I did double check the wheels and they are in gauge. I believe the wire i used was 22 gauge but I could be wrong it was just stuff I had laying around.
Ok well like I said the one locos running great now, but I got another question. I have an older BB SD40-2 runs great but occasionally it will stall out and then go again. wheels are clean and track is clean. Could it be the decoder messing up or something?
22-AWG wire sounds way too heavy. Stranded 28 would work better. A graceful 'service-loop' will also help spread the flexing over more wire length. The more strands any given gauge has the more flex it will have. The wires used in old headphone cables are sometimes highly flexible.
I am probably one of the few that gets anal about wiring older Athearn BB locos. What I do is solder wires to the Bronze bushings then directly to the decoder or decoder plug. I figure that the least amount of contacts made the better. Only contact between the track and wires is the wheel axles in the bushings. You don't have to worry about contact made to the metal truck plates or trucks and body this way.
I am probably one of the few that gets anal about wiring older Athearn BB locos. What I do is solder wires to the Bronze bushings then directly to the decoder or decoder plug. I figure that the least amount of contacts made the better. Only contact between the track and wires is the wheel axles in the bushings. You don't have to worry about contact made to the metal truck plates or trucks and body this way.
