Voltage Posts on post-war ZW

reverse the wires on the #213

I wonder whether you might have an intermittent connection on some of your "U" (common) posts?
All four "U" posts are connected together by a metal strip inside the transformer. Sometimes the posts break away from the strip.

I have had transformers with all four posts broken away.

To check for this, you could try putting all of your "U" connections on one post. If nothing works, then try another "U" post. If everything works, then you probably have one or more bad "U" posts.

Occasionally I've run across power posts ("A" - "D") with the same problem, but not anywhere near as often.

If you have bad posts, they are not difficult to replace with today's bolt-on replacements.

Thank you both. Hopefully it will be something simple.

I bought a post war ZW many years ago and the A terminal wire broke off inside at the back cover. So I wired it straight to the terminal screw and then added the other wire to the terminal screw.

Like C.W.Burfle mentions the common terminals are joined together inside the cover by a strip of metal. However I have not had this strip come loose in my case but have seen it happen to somebody else's ZW transformer.

FYI; the circuit breaker for the post war ZW is on the common side and for better protection of your trains add an external circuit breaker for each of the A to D terminals.

Lee Fritz

Replacement terminal posts are readily available, last time I bought some they were around 75 cents.  The Train Tender stocks them.

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but the problem was due to a loose wire leading into a circuit breaker; it wasn't the ZW at all. The connection looked okay just glancing at it, but it had been knocked loose. Sigh.

Again, thank you all.