Lenz silver mini+ decoder with motor short error

[Imahilus]

Hey,

I have an N gauge Graham Farish class 08 shunter that I fitted with a lenz silver mini+ decoder. I ran the loco in on DC on a set-track loop before fitting the decoder, and tested the loco after installation on the same loop, replacing the DC control with an Uhlenbrock Intellibox Basic DCC control box. It ran fine at the time.

Now, roughly a year later, I'm able to start working on my layout and have just wired up and some track and laid it down. Not even a loop, just a straight section so far, but I wanted to see my lovely little train run... and the controller just said short. So I opened up the loc, fixed the obvious short (so the intellibox no longer gives a short message when the train is placed on the track), but the decoder now keeps giving the error code 4 on CV 30 (which means motor short) and doesn't respond on the normal track. Now I've tried troubleshooting the wiring but am coming up a bit blank. I get 41.5 ohms of resistance between the motor pickups, but it makes sense to have continuity for the motor pickups, isn't it? (and from what I've found, 40ish ohms is fine for a motor)

I get continuity between the following wires:

grey and orange (both motor pickup wires)

grey and red (grey is motor pickup, red is wheel pickup)

orange and red (orange is motor pickup, red is wheel pickup)

No continuity between black and any other wires (black being a wheel pickup)

 

Resetting the decoder doesn't solve it either (I was thinking the error might trip and have to be reset to get the decoder to work again). I can still read and write CV values from the decoder on a programming track, so am thinking the decoder is still fine? (I only own a cheapish multimeter to troubleshoot)

Any help would be most appreciated!

Edited May 2, 2020 by Imahilus

[murrayec]

One thing that might be causing the problem;-

Old GF Class 08s have a gear splitting problem! If a gear is split the bogie jams, the motor cannot run and maybe the controller sees that as a short! Check each bogie, generally the intermediate gear or axle gears are the ones that split. To check them its best to remove the bogie from the chassis and turn the wheels by hand or run the bogie on a cutting matt and see what happens??

Eoin

[Imahilus]

Interesting thing to know, murrayec, as far as I'm aware this is one of their newer productions though, it's only roughly a year old.

I have checked the gears and wheels, and all axles and gears are in pristine condition. When the motors wormgear isn't engaged on the main drive cog, the wheels and gears run smoothly.

[Thomas]

Return it to DC mode and see if it works. 

[Imahilus]

So simple, got around to testing this... it's a motor short... tried running the actual motor, and can see there's a short there. Cheers for the assistance.