Model Railroading > Athearn RTR AC4400

I know, it's RTR so I expected some trouble. But, I was suprised with the terrible pickup.
Did the usual tear down and de-grease but problems remained.
Soldering pickup wires to PCB helped but still was stalling on everything.
Found that the 'blackening' on the metal portion of the truck assembly was interferring with good
conductivity. Lightly filed the opening where the bushings sit and now the pick-up issues have pretty
much dissappeard.

Doug

I had that happen on some of my SD60M's and SD60I's as well as the
SD45-2's. Go figure...what next???

Vincent

Buy a KATO!!

Same problem on my RTR SD45T-2 SSW 9389.

...still waiting for KATO to make one...

I had the very same problem on 3 out of 4 SD60M. I've made Athearn aware and gave them a fix to the issue. I took a piece of wire and ran it from the rivet to the top post. Takes some time to fix but runs great now.

wheel Wrote:
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> Buy a KATO!!

Right on!!

Further investigation found that apparently the 'blackening' on the metal is also preventing the rivet, while tight, not make good electrical contact. Am afraid to try any solder because of all of the plastic in the rest of the truck assembly.

Doug

wheel Wrote:
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> Buy a KATO!!


Wasn't it not so long ago that Kato's had to be hard wired to get decent pickup out of them?

wmfan3798 Wrote:
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> wheel Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> > Buy a KATO!!
>
> Wasn't it not so long ago that Kato's had to be
> hard wired to get decent pickup out of them?

I think that was only on the SD40-2's, where they had changed the way they did the pickup.
I've never had any problems with any of others needing to be hardwired.

I sure miss the old Blue Box Kits

dougsrr1 Wrote:
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> Further investigation found that apparently the
> 'blackening' on the metal is also preventing the
> rivet, while tight, not make good electrical
> contact. Am afraid to try any solder because of
> all of the plastic in the rest of the truck
> assembly.

I think I saw an article once where someone actually soldered wires to the little square brash bushings that the axles fit into, instead of the side plates of the truck assembly. Probably tedious and difficult, but I'd bet that would make for good pickup.

Dave

wheel Wrote:
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> Buy a KATO!!

What a intelligent response. Katos also have their issues as many people have blown decoders due to poor PC board soldering.

GP25 Wrote:
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> I sure miss the old Blue Box Kits


Not to knock blue box kits, but this is the same design. The only reason the blue boxes don't do this is that the metal is blackened on the RTR for a better look above and behind the sideframes.

Never had this happen to any of my RTR units, and I don't adhere to the concept that Kato is better. I've had many issues with their flimsy pick up system. But, nonetheless, Athearn does have it's problems. My biggest issue is the amount of grease they pour into the trucks! Once cleaned out and lightly lubed, I add a second pickup wire, so I have pickup wires on both sides of each truck. I refuse to depend on using the frame as a ground. Bad idea Athearn, and I've noted more recent models having dropped this idiotic concept! Otherwise, adding that extra wire to each truck and removing the ground wire will improve things a lot.

Jim