I want to eliminate the motor connector clips on my Athearn engines. What gauge wire should I use? As always, thanks in advance. Radar
I use left over decoder wire when I’m installing a decoder. If the motor draws more amperage than that wire can handle, the decoder is going to burn out before the wire does.
That’s why it’s good practice to determine the motor’s current requirement before installing a decoder.
At last count, I’ve installed over 80 decoders and have never had a problem with the wiring.
You can not eliminate the motor clips themselves. They hold the brushes in and in some motors hold the end panels to the motor. The best thing is to solder a 28 to 30 gauge wire to the clips and flip the clips top and bottom. Cover the bottom of the motor frame with a heavy electrical tape and put the bottom clip on top and the top clip on the bottom. While you have the motor apart clip half the brush spring off. This will increase the motors efficiency and make it run smoother. While you have the loco apart shim the worms on top of the trucks to limit fore and aft movement. This will eliminate the jerkiness of the loco. Especially going down grade. One more thing is to not rely on the truck to frame pivot to pass electrical current. Attach pickup wires to the truck frames. These little tuneups will give you a very good running Athearn that will serve you well for years. I have some old BB Athearns that run better then any other brand of loco on the market.
Pete
Actually, I bet the OP’s talking about the long clips that connect the trucks electrically. You CAN remove those. I use 24-26 gauge wire. Run a length from one truck to the other, then one from one of the trucks to the brass clip that snaps to the top of the motor. Make sure to leave enough slack so that the trucks will swing freely side to side.
NOTE: When soldering the lead to the bronze clip, remove it from the motor first, so you don’t melt any plastic parts on the motor.
Just be carefule removing that top clip on the motor, there’s a spring for the brush under there and if you loose that your loco will be on the dead line until you can get a spare from Athearn. Gently lift it up so the spring doesn’t pop out, solder the wire on, and snap it back in place.
Getting rid of that long clip will actually help performance - the soldered on wire will make better contact with the truck tabs than that clip.
–Randy
I used to clip the brush springs along w/ all the other driveline tuneup. I found that after any sustained motor speed that this increases arcing of the brushes. If you are determined to do this clip only about 1/4 of the spring. With not having enough brush tension the brush will “dance” on those armature staves, causing the arcing.
Use stranded wire as small as you can find. #22 AWG ought to be available. Solid wire doesn’t like to be flexed, and will break from vibration after a year or so. I assume you are talking about hardwiring power to replace the sliding contacts between the trucks and the long springy strip clipped to the top of the motor. If you are going this route, get some 1/4" Faston terminal lugs from the hardware store. These will slip right over the strips coming up from the trucks, and allow you to take the locomotive apart without soldering. Solder the wire to the Faston’s, and slip the Fastons over the truck power strips. The other end of the wire I solder to the metal strip clipped to the top of the motor. That stuff will solder, but you need to buff it with a wire wheel and use plenty of flux.
Thank you all for your input. I was indeed replacing the motor spring clip to the trucks, and thanks to you kind people, it works well. Once again, many thanks.