Been running my Es and once I stopped it the cab light continued to blink. The smoke unit has not been on. The engine will not move. I tried shutting the power off and still nothing. What to do?
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Put the engine in program mode, assign it a new ID number press set. Then put it back in run mode and see if it fixes the issue. What we really need to know is how many blinks
you're seeing, to pin point the issue
Alex
Another couple of ideas, which I hope are not off point - as Alex says it really depends on how many blinks you are seeing.
3 flashes is generally the smoke unit fan motor stalling. There was a thread on this subject in which Mike Reagan suggested blowing air into the smoke stack to free the fan up so that it spins freely on start up and the diagnostics are not fooled into thinking the fan motor is drawing too much power. One way this can happen is if smoke fluid gets in the fan chamber of the smoke unit as that can make the impeller stick.
I think that 1 flash is main motor drive stalled. I mention this because there is an issue with these engines over the drive mechanism locking up because the grease used in them hardens over time, for example if the engine has not been used in a while although you seem to have been running yours normally just before this happened. Will the wheels turn manually or without difficulty? If not you may have to take the truck off and re-lube the main gears in the truck to free it up. I had this problem and there's a thread on the solution here:
Thank you for the suggestions. The blinking is just one blink I will see if the wheels spin freely. If not I will try to lube them. Is there anyway to do this without taking the trucks off?
Originally Posted by Bingo player:
Thank you for the suggestions. The blinking is just one blink I will see if the wheels spin freely. If not I will try to lube them. Is there anyway to do this without taking the trucks off?
1. Check your manual to see what one blink means for this engine but I think it will be main motor drive stall.
2. Before you do any of what I describe next check whether the wheels will turn by hand (in the first instance just try pushing the engine along the track to see if they are binding) and with what degree of difficulty. They should turn relatively easily and if not you may have a lubrication issue.
3. In order to get at the main drive gear you have to take the truck off but as these will be Liontrucks (or whatever exactly they are called) it's a matter of twisting the truck 90 degrees and it will come out free of the motor. The place where the motor worm gear fits in the truck is where you have to check for degraded lubricant - I think on mine I had to remove a few small screws to get the cover off.
One problem is that the wires to the pickup rollers and the ground connections are short. I had to unscrew the ground wire connection on mine to get at the top of the truck and putting it back together was a PITA.
Perfect thank you. I will try to roll the engine once I get home and let you know. I just really hope I do not have to ship it back to Lionel
Originally Posted by Bingo player:
Perfect thank you. I will try to roll the engine once I get home and let you know. I just really hope I do not have to ship it back to Lionel
BTW, I can't second guess Alex M's advice about changing the loco's I.D. as this may also cure the problem. Are you running it under Legacy? If so might be a good idea to try the soft reset ("R" on the CAB2 keypad) if the wheels are turning OK. If that doesn't cure it try changing the I.D. but that will involve putting the RUN/PGM switch on PGM and then putting it back to RUN after you have changed the I.D. The manual will have step-by-step instructions for this and you may have to re-load the Legacy engine module.
1 blink indicating motor driver stall does not necessarily mean something is binding. Dirty track where the loco loses power briefly and stops will cause the same " motor driver stall" blink.
Start with the easy stuff, clean the track and make sure theres nothing on the wheels or pickup rollers of the loco. Newer legacy locos are extrememly sensative to dirty track, and just because your track looks clean doesn't necessarily mean it is.
I've had locos do strange things on more than one occasion, and they were fixed by cleaning the track which did not "appear" dirty. It doesn't take much oxidation or residue to create a power interruption for the loco and cause problems.
