Bachmann Decoder Issues

[John B.]

About a month ago I had a Bachmann H-4 that gave me a fault code "9". So to help narrow down whether the problem is in the engine or the tender I swapped the tender of another H-4 that I knew worked. After swapping the tenders the locomotive in question worked flawlessly. So the issue is with either the decoder or it's wiring. The train engine sat for a week and this afternoon I went to run a train for my nephew and the engine will not move, I have all my sounds and headlight but the decoder from the good operating engine is now throwing my a fault code "11" motor connection fault. The engine and tender have not been disconnected since the last time it ran. I also triple checked all my track to make sure no metal was laying across the rails creating a short. Is there anything else that could be causing this fault code? This is the second decoder issue I have had out of the 3 H-4's that i own. This is really making me think twice about buying another Bachmann product, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, john

[richg]

With some Bachmann tenders, the trucks can swivel all the way around this will create a short.

Rich

[John B.]

Rich, I just checked and the tender trucks cannot swivel all the way around. I powered up the layout again and I got the code 11 again. I swapped the tender back to the original engine and it worked beautiful. So it seems like I have an issue with just not the original decoder for the engine, but the engine itself. Looks like it may have to go back to Bachmann for repairs unless anyone else has some other helpful suggestions.

John

[jward]

have you tried running the engine you swapped tenders with, since the swap?

[John B.]

have you tried running the engine you swapped tenders with, since the swap?

Jeffery, I have not tried running the engine I'm have problems with since swapped the tenders back to the proper engines. I just got off of work and will try and run the problematic engine with both the original tender and the swapped out tender to see what happens.

John

[jward]

run both of them, before and after you swap the tenders and tell us what you find.

[John B.]

run both of them, before and after you swap the tenders and tell us what you find.

Jeffery, Too help make this less confusing I will refer to each engine by their road numbers. Engine 1523 the original engine that ran, once I plugged in it's original tender back it worked fine. The engine with the problem 1519 threw a code "9" over temp. fault with it's original tender. This was the original fault that the engine gave. I plugged in 1523's tender to engine 1519 and this time it worked fine. Before I had the chance to plug in 1519's tender with engine 1523 the tender took a header to the floor and landed on the decoder. After the fall I am getting no sounds or lights, the wheels came out of the one truck but I'm not sure if the truck was able to spin completely around without the wheel set. I will be checking this tomorrow and if that make no difference I will be replacing the decoder.

John