F7-A Quit

[Hogy]

Hi,
Bought a Thunder Chief HO set with F7-A DCC sound loco in January, been running fine, not a lot of hours.  All NS EZ track.  Today just quit, nothing works.  2 other locos on same layout running fine.  I've never looked at one of these.  Any ideas?  Thanks.

[jonathan]

Hogy,

These links:

https://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,35300.0.html;
https://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,36963.0.html

...will take you to my projects, working with the F-7A.  There are photos of the innards which may help.

There are 4 screws (underneath) that will loosen the shell to you can take a look.  While not necessary, it is much easier if you remove the front coupler as well.

The screws are located: 2 in front of the fuel tank; and 2 behind the fuel tank.

My thought is you may have a loose wire connection prior to the decoder--just because everything went dead.  No headlight, motor sound, or speaker sound?  Yes?

Could also be a short caused by something metal, preventing the current from getting to the decoder.  

These are guesses, as I can't see your loco.  Hope this is helpful.

Regards,

Jonathan

Addendum:
Pay close attention to wires that are connected by those pesky little plastic caps.  They work OK for the most part, but I've had to adjust more than one of those little things to get solid contact.  Just sayin'...

[Hogy]

Thanks, great info.  Yes, absolutely dead, nothing working at all, move, sound, light.  "It's not dead, it's sleeping"  Monty Python. 

[Hogy]

Wanted to report on how this turned out but I can't.  Loco sat on the shelf for a few days, I had finally decided to dig into it, thought I'd give it one more test and it worked fine.  Could be a loose wire somewhere, if it happens again I do have the info sent.