# Decoder Harness Wire Connections



## DavefromMD (Jul 25, 2013)

Upon installing a Digitrax harness and decoder into my locomotive, I noticed what seemed to be a loose connection on one of the wires going into the plug. The forward and reverse lights stopped working. I removed the shell to investigate and discovered the bad connection was with the white and yellow wires at the plug. They had a bit of play and when I moved them around at the plug the lights went on and off. I also discovered play in the red right side power wire and when I jiggled that, the entire locomotive shut down. None of the other power wires exhibit this behavior.

Do I have a bad harness or is this typical of the wires at the plug connection?


----------



## fcwilt (Sep 27, 2013)

I would say something is wrong.


----------



## Mark R. (Jan 26, 2013)

Can I assume this is a 9-pin inline plug ? The pins in those plugs that the wires are attached to, do float a bit in the housing. Are you sure you have it plugged in tight ? They are a pretty tight fit.

Your description sounds like the plug isn't fully seated and wiggling the wires is causing intermittent contact.

Mark.


----------



## DavefromMD (Jul 25, 2013)

I did have a little trouble getting the decoder into the plug. It seemed like some of the pins weren't aligning properly. I eventually got it on and it seems seated pretty solidly. I finessed it on because I didn't want to force it on for fear of bending the pins.


----------

