Steamer only gets electrical pick up on left side drive wheels


O

Orange Irish

Member
A BLI 4-8-4 kept stalling at mid to slow range speed going through a couple #6 turnouts. I placed it over some plastic to test the electrical pick up and realized that the entire right side does not pick up electricity. It is described as having all drive wheel electrical pick up, except for the lead and trailing trucks. Is there anything simple I can do to fix this problem myself, like factory reset, or do I need to send it off for repair? If it requires taking the whole thing apart and soldering some micro sized wire to a tiny dot, I will likely ruin that job.
 
I see that there is a loose wire in the tether plug coming out from the tender. It's on one end of the plug, is in place but wiggles back and forth as if it's not soldered in securely anymore. Would this wire likely control one side of the drive wheel pick up? It's such a tiny place that I can't imagine trying to fix it. Does anyone fix these things or would BLI send me a new tether for a 2010 Paragon 2 loco?
 
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If the decoder is in the tender, then it is the wire bringing power from all of the wheel pickups to the decoder, from where the decoder is then connected back to the motor through the same plug connection. BLI does have a repair service, If you feel uncomfortable carrying out a repair yourself, contact them to organise a return. To you still have the original box and packaging?
 
Yes, the decoder is in the tender and I have all original packaging. Problem is, I sent off this loco a year ago to BLI's repair shop TSD, and they sent it back saying it worked fine and didn't do any work or diagnostic on it (as far as I know). If I contact BLI directly instead of going through TSD, I imagine BLI will just send it there anyway, and I'll be out $100 for nothing. Maybe I can talk a good game on the phone today...
 
That's frustrating and expensive for nothing (I'm assuming it was the same problem). Was the wire loose the last ime you sent it in? I would definitely refer to that if it was when you talk to them.
 
Yes, the wire was loose, but not enough to be an obvious cause. I can't say for sure now that the wire is the cause, but TSD apparently didn't bother to check very hard for anything.
 
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