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 Posted - September 06 2010 : 9:33:12 PM
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Hey all,
All this talk about remotoring PTs, what about wiring (or rewiring) Tyco PTs?
I sure could use some basic wiring diagrams for repairing broken wires on Power Torques.
I know this isn't Rocket Science, but it sure would help me determine if my PT was shot, if I knew I had wired it correctly
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated
Cheers, Ian
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Country:  USA ~
Posts: 87 ~
Member Since: September 05 2010 ~
Last Visit: September 26 2012
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Posted - September 06 2010 : 10:33:51 PM
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The PT is easy to test - there's two terminals on the side of the motor where the wires are soldered to. You just need some sharp test probes, two pieces of wire, and a Tyco Transformer. just pull out the PT motor from the shell, and wire your transformer to two wires with probes ( you can use paperclips, or any other rigid metal to use as a probe, and since they're made of copper, they're easy to solder to as well ). Turn up the transformer, and touch both terminals. If the motor is any good, it'll try to turn over. This eliminates bad wiring and faulty chassis contacts by going directly to the motor terminals. If it still won't turn over, then it's either binding, fried, or needs contacts/cleaning. You can turn the BIG gear with your finger, don't try the wheels, bad leverage situation. If the big gear turns easy, it's not binding. If it is really hard to turn, or stiff, you have some issues. I just broke off the big gear stud post in my GG1 PT motor, it was binding so badly. The smaller gears between wheels were also binding, very bad motor. I think it came that way from the factory.
Anyway, one terminal goes to the light bulb, actually THRU it, and if it's burned out, the motor won't run, at least on my GG1 it seemed it was that way. I haven't looked at a wiring diagram yet, or ohmed it out, but looking at it, with the light isolated, there was no way the voltage could go anywhere but THRU the bulb to the motor only, so if the bulb was bad, the motor would not work. I think they did that on some cheaper engines. So test your bulb first. Radio shack carries both grain of wheat and threaded bulbs of 12volts, about $2.50 for 2 of them. I bought some Saturday, that's how I know. :)
As far as directional wiring, it's 50/50, you can use a piece of track, the transformer, and figure out which is positive,and which negative from that, then determine which side of the locomotive picks up which one. Then touch the pair of wires to the loco terminals, and switch them, to see which direction the wheels turn,and compare that to the track terminal wiring polarity. Seems hard, but it's only positive/negative, just a matter of following the juice in the circuit. It's either one way, or the other, and you can figure that out by just knowing which rail is positive, then making sure the wire from the motor terminal is going to that side of the locomotive going forward. Not rocket science, just railroad science. You won't hurt anything by switching wires, the loco's are designed to run in either direction with voltage switched, hence backwards and forwards - so don't hesitate to play around with it, to figure it out. It's not like a Lionel AC engine.  Have fun!
Jerry, Electronics Technician
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - September 07 2010 : 6:04:24 PM
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AMC,
Thanks for the info and tips. I had no idea that a burned out bulb could affect the PT that way.
Cheers, Ian
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Posts: 87 ~
Member Since: September 05 2010 ~
Last Visit: September 26 2012
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