Lionel Fastrack Switch Auto-throwing in wrong direction.

Remove the back plate and reverse the motor wires and see what happens.

Ya think...

Chuck Sartor posted:

Remove the back plate and reverse the motor wires and see what happens.

So I removed the back plate, as well as the back plate from a switch that works properly. The only difference I’m seeing is that a cluster of wires on the faulty switch are arranged: blue, green, yellow & red. The properly working switch shows the same cluster as: green, blue, yellow and red. 

Service bulletin posted by Lionel on 4/25 affecting O-72 switches:

We are aware that the latest run of Fastrack O72 left hand switches are having trouble with the anti-derailing feature and this may go across all recently released LH switches.

The known issue is that the anti-derailing feature is wired backwards (see MP4 attached for a demo), this is an easy fix. 2 wires are in the wrong position and just need to be unplugged and swapped, no soldering needed.

 Backwards Anti-Derail Wiring Fix

To fix Fastrack switches that have the anti-derailing feature operating opposite of what they are supposed to do is a simple fix. Simply locate the blue and green wires that are attached to the split rails, pull the wires off the lugs and swap them. The correct position is as seen in the photo. Circled here is the correct wiring, green to thru (straight) and blue to out (curve)

GregR posted:

 

 Backwards Anti-Derail Wiring Fix

To fix Fastrack switches that have the anti-derailing feature operating opposite of what they are supposed to do is a simple fix. Simply locate the blue and green wires that are attached to the split rails, pull the wires off the lugs and swap them. The correct position is as seen in the photo. Circled here is the correct wiring, green to thru (straight) and blue to out (curve)

That did the trick! Found those two wires among the helicopter wreckage of wires, and it finally works as it should!

Saved me the hassle of returning it through eBay and buying a new one.

Thank you so much!

Steve

Just had to fix a new 036 LH switch I just bought. Same problem and fix. It was a little difficult because during assembly, they had smeared hot glue all over all the wires. I had to dig out the offending wires from a big rats nest of wires and hot glue.

This reminds me of a problem I had with my "new" Lionel Electronic ZW Transformer.  I had bought Four 180 watt power bricks for this transformer and there was a PROBLEM with each brick.   The incoming power cord was wired incorrectly.   All I had to do is pull out the power cord from the transformer and reverse the wiring.  Unfortunately, I could not get into each power pack because of the way they were fastened together.  So, I had to pay $35 bucks for each transformer power pack to reverse a simple wiring problem.   It was fixed by a Lionel Service Repairman and he had a special screw driver to get the 4 screws open to these power packs.  I could of easily fix the problem by cutting the power cord and striping off some insulation and soldiering the wires together correctly.   So that little mistake by Lionel at the Chinese Factory cost me an extra $140 bucks to get the wiring correct --- of which this could of been totally corrected in China had they had quality control people checking the work of each factory worker.  Lesson learned -- Every piece of your electric train equipment you buy should be tested to make sure it was built and works correctly.  (The main reason why I did not repair it myself is that someone who sees a patch on a power cord of a transformer might think that were was something wrong with the item)!! 

sincerely yours     railbear601