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Recently, my Ives 3251 bit the dust. The wire to the headlamp was bare and shorted out whenever I tried to run it, so I did something rather dumb. I cut two wires; one was for the light and the other was the one that makes it run. Well today, I spliced the two wires together, not knowing what I was doing and when I powered it up, there was a blue flash, smoke, and a electrical buzz. Can it be saved or does it need to be trashed?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Alex
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Sounds like a grounding issue - just spit balling here. Take the headlight wire out of the equation, take it loose and just tape over it, then rehook the power pickup wire back to the positive brush - the loco should run. These things are pretty simple as far as wiring goes. So long as you've got a hot brush and a grounded brush, the thing has to run as long as the laws of physics are still in play. However, if the armature's blown or there's a faulty reverse mechanism involved, all bets are off! Good luck! Smile
These locos have a very simple electrical circuit.

The wiring of the reversing switch is (going clockwise or counter-clockwise, it makes no difference):

Terminal #1 - connect to the pickups

Terminal #2 - connect to brush #1 (arbitrarily assigned number)

Terminal #3 - connect to the field winding (the other end is connected to ground)

Terminal #4 - connect to brush #2

Throw away ALL of the old wires the insulation is 'kaput'! Replace with new wires.

Ron M
Wiring diagram. You might need to start over and just rewire it all. Sounds like you have something touching something it shouldn't Smile

http://ivestrains.org/CD/wiring/Ogauge.jpg

Just skip the reverse unit though. Power comes in thru the pickup plate and goes to the headlight and one of the brushes. Then from the other brush to the field armatuer, then grounded to the sideframes of the motor in order to to to the outside rails of the track thru the wheels.

Be sure that none of the metal part of the wiring is touching any parts of the motor. Also make sure your headlight connection is not shorting out by touching metal. In other words, all connections need to be capped with a screw cap or be wrapped in electrical tape or covered with insulation. Anywhere the wiring is exposed and is touching other metal, it can short.

If wiring is good, you may try replacing the brushes.

Ives locomotives are great at actually catching on fire with orig. wiring...so you may just want to redo all the wiring.
quote:
Originally posted by The Nighthawk:
Eric, When your IVES catch fire do you just turn up the speed and let wind extinguish it?

Big Grin

I prefer using pledge to extinguish the fire. Adds a nice shine as well.


I tried that, but it shorted out and quit running.....looked like Cheech and Chong were in the cab when it came to a stop. Smelled great too Roll Eyes
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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
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