cant read cv

[scarpi]

One of the small wires on the tender chassis of one of my 4-6-0 On30 engines broke. I ordered from Bachmann a new tender chassis and when I received it I plugged in the engine and tried running it on my NCE Power Cab. It will not run on the default address 3 and when I try to program it to respond to address 2 since this engine is labeled 2, I get the message "cant read CV, main off". But my other three engines run fine. There is 12.5 volts to the track but this engine will not run at all. I'm puzzled. All I did was plug in a new tender chassis into the engine because the old tender chassis had a broken wire. Any ideas why this engine with the new tender chassis  does not respond at all? Thanks....Don

[Flare]

You didn't mention the decoder, did you transplant it from the original tender to the new chassis?

[scarpi]

Flare, you are so smart! I never noticed that the new chassis didn't come with the small decoder chip. After reading your message I removed the plug in decoder from the old chassis and plugged it into the new chassis circuit board and it ran! But now the engine has a problem. It runs fine in reverse but when I try to run it forward, it runs a few inches and then stops like it it hitting something. Probably something in the gears I'll have to check out. Unless you also have the solution to this issue. But thank you Flare. Much appreciated!

[Flare]

A few inches as in one wheel revolution?

Could be the gears or maybe the side rods are binding up.

[scarpi]

So I took the engine apart and cleaned and lubed all the gears. I noticed that when the wheel assembly was separated from the motor, the wheels would bind up going forward after about one revolution. Like getting stuck. I noticed that one side rod was slightly bent so I straightened it out and aligned all the gears and then the wheels now turn as they should. I put it all back together and now it runs. But for some reason the engine is slightly hesitant and takes more voltage than my other ones to run. But it is running so that's a good start. So thanks for all the help Flare. Maybe it will smooth out by running it.

[Flare]

Perhaps an axle bushing is out of position and causing friction?  I've only had to take apart Porters but I remember those bushings were a pain to get just right.

If that's not the problem don't forget to break it in going in reverse as well as forwards.

And you're welcome.