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Has anyone de-powered one of these units? If so, how hard is it to do? The reason I ask is I have 11 of these units now and I don't need all of them powered (as they came from Athearn). Also, if I remove the motors, can I still keep the lighting in working order? Thanks for your help.
Just yank the motor out, then remove the gears from the towers for less drag.
For lighting you can just wire straight up to the original contact points for DC or DCC, or hardwire right to the trucks.
I did this to add sound into a surplus loco that wasn't running the best.
Rico, Thank you for the help. I will give it a try this weekend on the test track.
Leave the motor in just take the drive shafts out and the top worm gear out of each truck then it will be good and heavy and your lights will work.
Rico,
I didn't get to it yet. I got busy painting and decaling those 12 athearn GP-60's. I have no excuse for today, so I will get one taken apart and see what's inside, kinda like Christmas!!
UPBrad,
I have plans for the motors.
UPBrad,
I have plans for the motors.
Well, that will making lighting a little more difficult but that's ok. Those covers over the worm gears will pop off and the shaft rides on two square bushing (on one each end of gear. Once you take the gear shaft and bushings out you can pop that cover back on (holds the trucks to the chassis) and the dummy engine will roll freely. I can't answer your lighting question. DCC may complicate the lighting situation further.
Unless you wanted to put a sound decoder and big speakers in I would leave it powered.
If you still want to depower the unit then completely remove the motor wires orange and grey on most units but not always and then take out the motor. Then remove the worm gear for less drag. Leave the circuit board in place . The lights will work fine. The problem is, the less weight and movement on the wheels you have a greater chance the unit will not make good contact with the rails. That's why I jumper all my dummies.
NYC_George
... Then remove the worm gear for less drag...
If you do not remove the worm gears the trucks will not roll when dragged.
First picture is a GP-60B powered unit.
This shows the shell off, but everything still connected.
Here the motor and drive shafts are removed. I've also unplugged the power leads to the trucks.
The power leads were reconnected after the gears were removed, I taped up the one lead that connected to the bottom of the motor and also taped the bottom of the circut board.
Everything back in the shell and power applied to the track and lights are working both forward and reverse. I did not cut any wires at all.
Good deal. Hows it roll???
Scott,
It rolls great. Just like any other dummy unit. I replace all my dummy units with metal wheels for better tracking anyway. I'm going to look into putting a sound unit in a couple of these dummys.
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