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Hey every1 i have an older emd sdp40f locomotive i won off ebay with the metal strip n the middle like athrean old kits and rtr kits i wnt to convert it too sound and dcc now i knw its goin have to be hard wire so i was wondering is it best to let my lhs do it or is it something a intermedtie modeler can handle
Well, I consider myself to be an intermediate modeler, and I can handle it. It all depends on how comfortable you are with soldering. Also, it depends on how well you know the Athearn chassis.
Hard wiring is not too hard to do. The diagrams that come with the decoders are pretty easy to follow. 90% of all my engines I had to hard wired. There are a lot of people and hobby shops that will do it if you are worried about doing it.
If you're still not comfortable doing it, ask around and see how much the hobby shops charge you. If they charge you a lot, then I could do it for you for $10 and you supply the decoder, speaker, and pay for shipping both ways. (unless you're in canada, then I can't do it for you)
Im not in canada im in los angeles I am just tryin to get a fimiliar with everything im not sure if its an athearn model tho because of the chassis is much heavier than the athearn models I have I believe its a AHM model im nt sure tho. I have about 7 models im putting sound in now im probaly going to tackle this project around june due to the fact I believe it needs to be cleaned and overhaul due to it take a lot of amperage under DC power to get the model to move and than when it does move it seem that its under 1smph
I've done one of the HO Athearn SDP40F locos for motor and light control only. Hard wiring it was easy. Make sure the motor is isolated from the frame. Like all Athearn BB locos the motor has a strip on the bottom with two prongs that make contact with the frame. These are easy enough to break off. Put a couple of strips of electrical tape in the motor well to insure there will be no contact. With all the space inside the shell finding a place for the speaker should be easy.
here is the chassis and carbody. The engine of the SDP40F now pulling to much voltage. I think the motor is done for. So the DCC sound is being put off.
It does look like you have an old one there. Very likely the motor is gone. You can remotor it with a motor from another Athearn loco. On mine I used the motor, flywheels, shafts and worm assemblies from an Athearn AC4400. For my dummy Athearn SDP40F I pitched the dummy chassis and replaced it with a modified chassis from a Proto 2000 E6.
here is the chassis and carbody. The engine of the SDP40F now pulling to much voltage. I think the motor is done for. So the DCC sound is being put off.
ok. Thats good. Does A-line motors give good performance for passenger operations? Also since the prototypes had derailing issues would the rebuild of this model would? I do know i need to change the wheel for more prototypical look?
I don't know. I've never tried A-Line motors. As far as the wheels go almost anything is better than the old iron wheels. Mine has the newer nickel silver wheels that come on the RTR Athearn locos.
First things first that is a FP-45 ,two the newer style motor is plug and play.Those old Jet motors were power hogs even when they were brand new.
Like Jeffery said break off the contact tabs from the bottom strip or if you are feeling confident enough swap the top and bottom strips and use the tabs to solder decoder wires to. In either case as Jeffery said a layer or two of electricaltape between the motor mounts will gaurentee electrical isolation of the motor.
As for sound any good quality SD/FP-45 sound decoder with a decent speaker will work.
Another trick you can use on the newer motors (again depending on your confidence level) is to remove the brush springs,cut them in half and stretch them back to the origonal length before reinstalling.This will in turn cut down on power consumption.
