[mroe21877]

Hoping someone has an idea about what's going on with my MTH 249e. This is from a Christmas RTR set 11-5505-1, Link below.

When sitting still everything seems ok. Sounds, smoke fan but lousy smoke, and lights all work. Oddly the address in the remote for this loco is blank.

When moving though the loco stutters horribly both in sound and motion, and it seems to be in sync with the chuffing. I cleaned the pickups, track, checked the connection to the tender, checked the DC's switch... I'm lost. Hopefully the video shows the issue well.

Thanks
Mike

Sent from my Vivo XL4 using Tapatalk

 

[Lehigh74]

I would double check the drawbar connections. I had a steamer with the same impediment. I thought the cab end was tight, but checked it again and that was the problem. Don't know what to say about the address issue.

https://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=115425

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

It sounds like the smoke is an issue, if you turn off the smoke, does it still have the problem?

 

[mroe21877]

With the smoke off it still happens. With sounds off it still happens as well. Sitting still I can run through the PFA, use all sounds, etc. The chuff sounds seems to be where the stutter happens. When it stutters the lights blink with the stuttering sound.

Sent from my Vivo XL4 using Tapatalk

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

The chuff is electronically generated internally by the board, so I'd start by reloading the sound and chain files.

 

[mroe21877]

I realize this is three years later now but I have run across a similar but new issue with this engine and wanted the history available. A few years ago the engine would stutter and audio would make a horrible sound on chuff. Replacing the sound and chain files worked. This year it started again but it was only stopping/turning off lights on the chuff. I tried to replace audio and chain files but it didnt work. I took off the shell and noticed a lot of smoke fluid near the unit board. I suspected a short at the unit although it was working fine. With smoke turned off, which I hadnt tried before, it was worked fine! but i noticed with the smoke unit on the fan wasnt putting out smoke while in motion. So I unplugged the fan only, ran it with smoke on, and it worked fine. So this appears to be a smoke fan issue. However, at idle it smokes great. The fan works fine. Holding the motor plugged in but unistalled, at idle, it runs great, no binding no noise or vibration. In motion, before a chuff is generated, it doesnt move at all, which means it isnt stopping during the chuff the way the rest of the engine does, it just doesnt move. I'm not sure it is a motor issue but I cant think of what else it could be. It is obviously the motor causing it, somehow, the engine still produces a chuff sound without the smoke on and without the motor installed, so something with the motor is the issue, but the motor does work. I thought maybe the fluid was in the wire connector and causing an issue when commanded to turn on at the chuff, but why would it work at idle without issue? I can get a motor but if anyone has ideas first I'd like to hear them. I thought perhaps the voltage applied in chuff is maybe much more than idle to create a chuff of smoke, causing an issue that would not present under idle? maybe? I haven't pulled the meter out yet but I dont know what to learn from that anyway. I never could get this one to load into the remote correctly either. It always comes up with no name.

Thanks again