Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, some doofus installed an HO Digitrax decoder in an Athearn blue box Union Pacific EMD TR5A switch engine. It must have been one of his first installs, because it never really ran right. It would actually run fine, as long as the shell was not put on. Install the shell and it didn't run for nothin'!
So the doofus picked up a used Digitrax DZ-121 decoder at a train show and decided to install it, instead. The 'original' decoder had a flat 9 pin harness, which was removed. The decoder found its way into an Athearn DCC ready Milwaukee Road SD45 (see last pic here:
http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/...ms-division-ho-scale.26206/page-9#post-433597). I think the HO decoder was just too big and rubbed on the flywheel and truck. This decoder should have plenty of room. I plan to locate it in the cab.
Here's a pic of the switcher disassembled:
The spring and bottom motor brush are in the plastic dish. The frame and shell are actually pointing the wrong direction in this pic. That screw about halfway in the top of the frame was originally where I put the black pickup wire. In this install it will be soldered to the front headlight bracket, which will not be used for a headlight, but still has track power to it. The lights were replaced with grain of wheat bulbs. The trucks will be disassembled, cleaned, and lubed before reassembly. The wheels will also be cleaned.
This decoder came with a plug attached, which I cut off. This left the gray and black wires a little short. They would not reach where I wanted them to go and still allow the decoder to be in the cab, so extensions were soldered on and 1/16" heat shrink tubing installed to protect and strengthen the joints. The gray wire has been done in this pic. (Wally just had to get in the act. The big ham.)
Speaking of wires, does anyone know what gauge these wires are? I'm guessing 32. The reason I ask is because the wire cutter/stripper I have (the yellow Stanley tool in the pic) strips down to 26 gauge stranded, but the hole is still too big for these wires. I'd like to get a proper set of wire strippers. This is also an example of why I keep small bits of leftover wire, you never know when you'll need a bit of a certain color.
This is where the install is at right now:
The gray and orange wires are soldered to the appropriate motor clips, and the black wire has an extension soldered on and heat shrunk. I had a little concern about the gray wire being close to the flywheel, so I tucked it under the head of the screw and tightened the screw down just until it held the wire. I might take it off of there and use a bit of tape to secure it out of the way, though.
I won't install the black or red wires until the trucks are reinstalled, and that won't be done until they are cleaned and lubed.
One thing I do want to stress: Do NOT solder the gray or orange wire to the motor clips with the clips still attached to the motor! The motor mount frame is plastic, and you will most likely end up deforming it. This will throw off the angles and the motor will not run right. I watched a YouTube video of some kid doing an install, and sure enough: he soldered onto the clip with the clip still attached! I don't know what happened, it was a multi part video and I only watched part one. When you do remove the clips, be careful. There is a spring under that clip which holds the motor brush onto the armature. Pop that clip off too fast, and that spring will launch itself into the void of the space/time continuum, never to be seen by human eyes again!
Well, it's time to make my lunch for work tomorrow, and have supper for tonight. I'll continue this later. Thanks for looking!