Conrail switcher 9123 is now sporting Kadee No. 5’s drilled and tapped onto the frame, directional lighting thanks to a 6-diode regulator, and had it’s metal strip conductors replaced with hard-wiring. I always have a hard time getting all the wiring into the chassis after a rework like this. It took several attempts to get the wires stuffed up out of the way of the flywheels. Even now, I don’t think the trucks are swiveling freely enough. Does anyone have any advice on a minimum wire size and where to get it? I think I need smaller, more flexible power feeders to the motor. I’m running DC.
Thanks,
Jim
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/6C-FBL/825800/6_COND.FLAT_PHONE_WIRE,_BLUE_.html
http://www.allelectronics.com/matrix/Hook_Up_100.html
http://www.electromechanicsonline.com/default.asp?cat=Wire+PVC
on the last one, scroll all the way to the bottom.
Remember you are looking for small guage STRANDED wire, not solid.
Wow! That last link has some really small gauge wire! I’ll have to check out stranded phone wire too. I may have some of that.
I finally convinced myself I got the shell back on with the wires out of the way. I figured I’d check it for compatibility with a Life-Like switcher for a consist. Low and Behold, the Athearn was running BACKWARDS! I then proceded to take it all apart again and reverse the trucks. Much better now. It won’t really run in consist with the Life-Like, though. The speeds are too different.
Jim
After I got my first Life-Like GM switcher, the Athearn SW7s in my fleet started dropping like flies. I sold off all the Athearn SW7s and replaced them with Life-Like units. The Life-Like GM switchers look far more prototypical and run much better than the Athearn SW7s.