Recently I purchased some HO lots at two different auctions at either end of the country. I tested all the engines that came in those lots and almost all of them the light works, but the engine doesn't run. That certainly could be legitimate, but seems very strange to me that only one worked in both ways and everything else had one work. Only two didn't work at all and there were 20ish all total. Anyone know why that might be? Just strange coincidence? I tried two different transformers as well with wires to wheels, I don't have a layout.Thanks for any help you can give.
Gotcha. Seems pretty across with the brands. Life-Like, Walthers, Bachmann and others. They all seem like regular engines to me and not in boxes, how do i tell if they are DC?
Open up one of them that does light up, take a few close-up of what's inside, maybe we can walk through some things to try.
Frank, The first one looks like Athearn, does it try to run at all? I would start by unhooking the drive lines to the trucks and see if the motor turns at all. I would not recommend pulling the motor our. If the loco is old, the motor mounts could be brittle and break. The top of the truck where the driveshaft goes will pop off. I would take those out and start there. If you go to the Athearn website you should be able to look at a schematic to see how they come apart. Could be they just need a good cleaning and Lub.
If the motor doesn't try to Nov at all, the motor brushes could be shot. That's a fairly easy fix on the athearns pictured.
