Okay, I finally got the time and did some simple trouble shooting. First off, I'm a mechanical engineer. This electricity stuff is all black magic. But I know enough to be dangerous. So I took the shell off of the GG1, pulled out my cheap Harbor Freight multi meter (MM) and started poking away. It has a mother board (MB) with 3 daughter boards (DB). The daughter boards are marked sound, radio, and power. All wire connectors go to the MB. Testing was with no track power. The battery is plugged in unless I say otherwise. I found the battery connector and tested the power at the MB, I got .68V (All voltage reading are approximate.). So I checked at the battery and got the same. I unplugged the battery and got 5.5V. Plugged back in and got .68V. I grabbed my K-Line Big Boy's (BB) tender and took it's shell off. I tested it's battery while connected and got 7.5V. So I swapped batteries thinking I may have a bad one. With the BB's battery int he GG1, it reads .68V. The GG1's battery in the BB reads 5.5V. So this leads me to believe there is a problem on the GG1. I swap batteries back but only connect one lead of the battery. I test for amp draw, and .01 amps. My thought is now there is a short/parasitic draw of some kind. I remove the sound board and test at the battery, still .68V. I removed the radio board, still .68V. I remove the power board and now I get 5.5V. I pug the sound board back in, then the radio board, both times I get 5.5V. I plug the power board in and get .68V. I swap the power boards from the GG1 and the BB. The BB still reads 7.5V and the GG1 .68V. This leads me to believe the problem is the GG1's MB. But I don't know where to go from here. I know it has to do with the route of electrons to/from the power board on the MB, but I don't know how to find the short. I hope some of you smarter folks can point me the correct direction. Thanks.
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