Model Railroading > No power from front truck only

I've got an Athearn Ready-to-Roll SD45T-2 that has always run poorly (hesitating) and the front lights always flicker when moving forward. The rear light works just fine when running in reverse. While cleaning the wheels, I realized that the front truck appears to not pick up any power from the track. When the rear truck is lifted from the rail, the motor stops. I checked the wire connections from the front truck to the circuit board and they seem fine. I switched out the decoder with another one that I knew worked, but that didn't help. Any thoughts what to do about this?

Thanks - Jim

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I have the same problem with a Genesis GP38-2.  Great looking engine with great sound, but it runs like crap because of power seems to be only picked up in one truck.  I will have to get the hood off and see what is going on.  Haven't had a chance to do it yet, but from my experience, it seems like there must be a loose or broken wire that needs to be fixed.

Well BlackW, it's good to know I'm not alone with this problem.

Jim

Take the front truck out, disassemble it, and clean the wheels, axle stubs and bronze bearing races with some contact clearn on a q-tip or old piece of T-shirt cloth. Make sure the axle stubs and bronze bushings are nice and clean, no dried grease film still on them, then reassemble with a drop of conductive lubricant inside the bronze beraing races. 

Also, while the truck is apart, it is a good time to solder the pick wires to the truck mounting pads, and ditch those black plastic clips.

JB

it is a good time
> to solder the pick wires to the truck mounting
> pads, and ditch those black plastic clips.
>
> JB

This has fixed about 99.9% of my problems with the same issue.

Athearn uses the locomotive frame as one of the power feeds. You can see one wire plugged in or screwed to the top of the frame. Power from the trucks comes from one wire connected to the bearing frame and a loose connection from a plate on the top of the truck to the surface on the bottom of the frame. This is the sketchy connection due to grease, rust and alignment.

Solder a wire from the truck bearing plate attached to the bearing plate then solder the other end to the wire you removed from the top of the frame.

Make these connections from both front and rear trucks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/16 10:12 by fbe.

CCT41 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Take the front truck out, disassemble it, and
> clean the wheels, axle stubs and bronze bearing
> races with some contact cl earn on a q-tip or old
> piece of T-shirt cloth. Make sure the axle stubs
> and bronze bushings are nice and clean, no dried
> grease film still on them, then reassemble with a
> drop of conductive lubricant inside the bronze
> bearing races. 
>
> Also, while the truck is apart, it is a good time
> to solder the pick wires to the truck mounting
> pads, and ditch those black plastic clips.
>
> JB

The following info is assuming that your Athearn RTR still has a similar general power pickup system as the older BB Athearns:  Like others on this thread have mentioned, soldering wires directly to the two sides of the truck is best. After you clean and lube the wheels see if your axles are in gauge holding your bronze bearings under the metal side frames, and that you have good electrical contact between the bronze axle bearings and the truck metal side frames. If not, you can try carefully bending the end of the truck frame with needle nose pliers to make slight pinch pressure onto the bronze bearing so that when loco is moving down the track you don't have excessive lateral play between bronze bearing and the truck sideframe (loose of conductivity). 

There is one other thing that you can check. Fbe described how Athearn uses the frame as a ground connection from motor to the trucks for electrical pick up. If your front truck has always been "dead", it is possible that there is paint on the frame where the truck seats onto the frame preventing any electricity getting to the motor. You'll need to scrap or brush off anything that prevents metal to metal contact between the frame and truck metal plate.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/16 13:01 by 70ACE.

bypass the rivets and eliminate them from an electrical connection. carefully solder to the metal bearing plates

twl

flippin77 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> it is a good time
> > to solder the pick wires to the truck mounting
> > pads, and ditch those black plastic clips.
> >
> > JB
>
> This has fixed about 99.9% of my problems with the
> same issue.

Absolutely! solder all connections and get rid of those plastic press on thingeys.
Rick
 

I have dealt with the same issue, several times, in different engines, including in the SD45T-2.

The solution has been to remove all plastic clips and solder the wires directly.  Cleaning the wheels and bearings is a good call too, but I have not had to do that.  

Further, in two separate situations in Genesis series diesels (one a GP50, and the other a GP40-2) one of the shrink-wrapped joints behind the truck sideframe was defective - the contact and wire beneath were corroded.  My hunch is that both were fluxed, but then never soldered at the factory.  I polished up the contacts, re-fluxed and soldered, and have had excellent performance since.

~RGDave

 

Every time you buy a model locomotive from any manufacture run it for awhile you find one truck pickup especially athearn sometimes atlas.