RED WIRE , BLACK WIRE ??????????????

[smcgill]

I"m replacing the old shay trucks with the new metal trucks.
O.K. so I take the old trucks of the older version SHAY per instruction .
The next part seems simple....connect red wire to red and black to black.. right !!!
The front of the shay has two black wires, and the front has two red wires...
You can not make this sh*t up!!
HHHMMMM... ?? 
Sean

[John R]

My Shay truck wires were all red insulation that had been painted black.  The wire was so cheap and stiff it would break with any movement, so I replaced it with some 24 AWG microphone wire which is nice and flexible. The Shay is still running fine after 5 or so years.

I have seen similar wiring on all my Bachmann locos.  The factory seems to use whatever is laying around for wiring.

Cheers,
John

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Hook the wires up the way you best think they should.  Apply power if the trucks run in opposite directions, or if you detect a short, reverse the wires in one of the trucks, you should be ok. There are more sophisticated ways to figure out which is which, but this simple method is usually just fine. Wire colors can be a problem with all model manufacturers, not just Bachmann. Ask me how I know!!  It is usually not too hard to run down what to do.  I'm sure others will chime in with info as well.

Bill

[Dave]

Hi Sean,
         Bill is on to it as far as the wiring goes in the Shay. I have recently extracted the PCB from my Shay and found that the wire colors don't always match the Diagrams. When you cut the wires from the board wrap a piece of masking tape around the various pairs and mark them as they come off the board.This will save you a lot of heart ache later on.

                  Cheers

                           Dave