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Sadly, my new AC6000 Legacy that arrived today has not moved a quarter of an inch on the track.
After a careful unpacking and programming it to my Legacy system, then getting the confirmation horn blow, when I turned  the throttle control to what I thought would be an exciting maiden voyage rollout, the engine made a slight shudder, did not move, and the light in the cab began a slow single flashing process. Dang!

I was stunned. After some furious researching in my manuals I learned the loco had a Main Drive Motor Stall fault. I turned off power and even reprogrammed the engine into the system (both three times) but no luck. Turn the throttle and the same thing happens every time.

Turning the engine over and doing some close inspection, I see that the rear truck drive wheels work normally. But - the front truck is firmly locked up and the geared wheels will not move. At. All.
It feels like they are completely welded in place.

I talked with the seller (in another state) and he offered to take it back and get it up and running in his shop OR, I can just return it for full credit, no problem either way - my call.

I love the engine and was really looking forward to adding to my layout but this has me really discouraged. Any advice on the issue would be greatly appreciated. My thinking is if I can do something to get it going without returning it I want to keep it. But if I have to send it back for repair I’m thinking I’ll just move on and return it altogether.

What to do...

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I personally like to investigate such issues. But you did pay for a working product so to each his own but it could be simple.

first I’d check all the open gears to make sure nothing is in them. Also check for any idler gears or main axles that have slid past the idler and thus locked up the truck. If nothing is immediately obvious then it’s time for a closer look. Turn the truck 90 degrees and it will come loose. Be sure NOT to lose the LionDrive coupling that will be between the truck and motor. From there you can check that the motor spins. I’m not sure on that AC6000 but sometimes there’s a little PCB on the top of the truck where you can unplug the electro-coupler and be able to deal with the truck completely separately.

@zhubl posted:

I personally like to investigate such issues. But you did pay for a working product so to each his own but it could be simple.

first I’d check all the open gears to make sure nothing is in them. Also check for any idler gears or main axles that have slid past the idler and thus locked up the truck. If nothing is immediately obvious then it’s time for a closer look. Turn the truck 90 degrees and it will come loose. Be sure NOT to lose the LionDrive coupling that will be between the truck and motor. From there you can check that the motor spins. I’m not sure on that AC6000 but sometimes there’s a little PCB on the top of the truck where you can unplug the electro-coupler and be able to deal with the truck completely separately.

I am new to the Legacy units and have never repaired a locomotive but I am very mechanically adept.I could not see anything in the gears but they acted like there has to be something.
How do I make sure to not lose the coupling?

Last edited by Raven87
@Raven87 posted:
Turning the engine over and doing some close inspection, I see that the rear truck drive wheels work normally. But - the front truck is firmly locked up and the geared wheels will not move. At. All.

It feels like they are completely welded in place.

Assuming you want to do basic investigation, the previous post was spot on.  Once you take the truck off (after checking for crap in the gears), you can see if something is obviously wrong.

There is a connector for the power and coupler on the truck, so you can completely remove it and check to see if spinning the motor hub the gears spin.  My guess is they won't and something is stuck in them.

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Well, that was interesting. I removed the truck (the coupler stayed in place on the truck shaft so that was no problem) - and amazingly the gears and wheels worked fine! Rotated forward and backwards with what I think was usual effort. Nothing at all  in the gears and the side to side movement of the axles looked fine. So, apparently no issue there?

So, I turned to the drive shaft of the motor. I was sure that given the gears and wheels worked fine that the motor had to be seized. But the shaft turned! Now, it did not spin all that easily (or freewheel) but it rotated! Now I’m puzzled.

I put the truck back on carefully, just sure it had to some bizarre reason before but that since both components seemed to work fine the issue had be solved. Right?

Wrong.

With the truck back in place and engaged with the motor shaft, the wheels STILL will not turn! I took the truck back out, checked things, and reinstalled it two more times - and got the same results. Wheels turn. Motor shaft rotates (but not freewheel or just spin freely). What the heck?

But reassembled? Nothing moves! What gives?

Frustrated, I set it aside for the night and now hope you guys have ever seen this before? Could it be that when coupled there is not enough play between the coupler and motor shaft, maybe bound up? (I didn’t drop the rear truck to compare motor shaft movement but I doubt that will solve the puzzle - maybe in the morning...)

Or, is the motor just too ‘tight’ and can’t overcome the resistance of the gears and torque multiplication effect and/or vice versa from the wheels/gears to the motor?

Weird.

BEF05B2C-9056-4DB2-9A51-6590D689ECBA

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Last edited by Raven87

It is definitely a problem with the motor. I pulled the rear truck and that motor spins freely.

I removed the front truck again and that motor is much harder to turn compared to the rear so there is definitely some issue with the motor itself.

As John suggested, I even did the locomotive legacy reset but it made no difference. It is definitely a mechanical issue.

So I will be sending it back.

My guess is something is jammed up against the flywheel inside the shell.

I think you’re right but it might be internal to the motor, just not sure. I didn’t want to remove the shell and risk damage to it to investigate further. If I was sure that could the problem I might have done that but I’m not.

So I’ve repacked it to be ready to return Monday.

Last edited by Raven87

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