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I recently purchased an MTH PS-2 Diesel new from ebay.  I bought the below shown MTH 20-20103-1 Santa Fe Baldwin VO 1000 switcher.  It looked new and looked as though it had not been run previously although it was built in 2010.  I believe it had .4hrs on it and very few scale miles.  The battery indicated low so I charged it for 24hrs on the MTH wall charger.   When I put the engine on the track and started and ran it, the engine ran great. It ran slow and fast and the sounds were just fine.  After about 30 minutes of running around my track, the engine started acting erratic and a couple of times it took off at full speed only to fall off the track when hitting a curve(Luckily not on the floor).  It stopped and started and shut off occasionally with the volume sometimes loud and sometimes normal.  At times it would not respond to the controller either. 

I was getting quite disturbed by it all since it was like new. I had not had any issues like this with any of the other MTH engines I own (6 or so).  I researched this online and thanks to the folks on this forum, I felt somewhat educated on some of the common speed related issues so I opened up the engine.  What I found was some white flecks all around the engine base below the flywheel, the stripes on the tach strip had been practically all destroyed and the two wires for the headlight were worn to bare spots.  Clearly the flywheel had been rubbing against the wiring causing the damage to both.

Thankfully I found and downloaded the file from this forum containing the tach strip markings.  I replaced the tach strip after printing it onto a self sticking label and repaired the light wires.  I was amazed that my engine again ran like new in every way.  No more stopping and starting, going fast, sound volume changing, etc etc.  The battery still indicates low however, so I have ordered a BCR-2 from J and W electronics which I hope will fix the dead battery issue.  Something else I learned about from this forum.

I just want to thank all of you folks who contribute to this forum with your technical advice.  It is much appreciated and saves a lot of headaches.My Baldwin Diesel newBaldwain flywheel damageBaldwin flywheel damage2Baldwing flywheel repair

Thank you, Mark Kikta

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  • My Baldwin Diesel new
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  • Baldwin flywheel damage2
  • Baldwing flywheel repair
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