This may sound like an odd request but here goes. Does anyone out there have spare Athearn BB power transfer clips to fit a GP-35 drive? (I don’t know what Athearn actually called it, but it is the piece that fits under the truck “towers” and connects to the top of the motor to transmit current from the trucks to the motor.) Due to some circumstances beyond my control, the clip that I had on an engine was lost. I am attempting to repair the damage and not having the clip is going to cause a problem.
I am not enthused about trying to solder wires to make the connection. I have also had issues with wires soldered to the requisite areas before. I also find that a power transfer clip gives me more flexibility as I seem to have to do maintenance on my engines and the wires seem to cause more problems than they solve.
Those clips are finiky at best for contact, I used to fool w/ rebending to gain better contact. Just wired and was done w/ it.
Don’t worry about finding a replacement. For a reliable electrical contact, that clip is replaced w/ wires soldered from the bronze motor clip to the truck towers. If hardwiring a decoder, the motor is isolated from the frame. In this case, I will swap the bottom clip w/ the prongs (done for better original chassis contact) to the top for easier soldering to those “punch hole tangs” Chassis/ left rail picked up by sodering to screw into chassis or headlight bracket.
Use some fine sandpaper to clean the areas you want to solder and use flux to help the solder to flow quicker and have a damp cloth handy to cool the area. I get the nickel silver solder, it works better than the 60/40 stuff. You’ll find that hard wiring them will give you much better wheel pick up on your turnouts and better motor control. Jim.
While I may be a little contrary to convention, I have never had problems when using the connector clips, other than getting them going the wrong direction. As mentioned earlier in this post, the few times I have dealt with hardwired engines such as has been described, I have had nothing but problems. In addition, I am horrid when it comes to soldering. I don’t even solder my power feed wires to my track. I use Atlas terminal joiners for track feeds and have never had a problem.
I always remove the top motor clip before soldering wires to it. Too much heat applied to it will melt the plastic pieces that hold it in place.
And be careful when removing it, because a brush spring under it can fly off into never-never land.
I use leftover decoder wire, which is very flexible. I have seen some modifications where the person used wire that was so stiff the trucks couldn’t turn.
Don’t you need the motor clip to hold the springs in for the commutator brushes? You can get a clip for that from I think Digitrax in their conversion kit BTW. YOu can also call Athearn parts and just order one.
Richard
Take a truck with you and go to an auto parts store or Radio Shack or hardware store, and look at a female connecter. You should find one that will fit the where the transfer clip went. Find one that takes a small wire size. You can crimp the wire to the connecter using a special tool or remove the plastic cover and solder the wire on. You really need to learn how to solder as it’s not that hard with the right tool. Remember there are soldering guns and irons. Iron are best for model railroads as they have a small tip. Joe
I believe that what he is looking for is that long flat piece that spans from the front truck to the rear truck and clips over the upper motor clip.
Athearn calls it a connector clip, http://hoseeker.org/assemblyexplosionAthearn/athearngp351973.jpg. I presume that they come in different lengths to suit the different loco wheelbases.
maxman,
You are correct. That is the piece I am looking for. I checked on ordering it from Athearn and they show it as “Sold Out” and I have been unable to find it from any other source.
There used to be a thriving business in “after market” parts that were intended to replace that piece, involving wire and press to fit metal clips. At least two rival outfits, both “basement operators,” made nearly identical parts and offered them for low prices. Somewhere in the house is the supply I laid in for future needs (which never arose). These outfits were too small and low key to ever appear in a Walthers catalog but were sold at swap meets.
They are probably easily made and involved no soldering, at least not by the purchaser. Very reliable and solid contact and not as finicky as the thin metal pieces. But you can do this yourself
I found some good online tutorials for this
http://rrdepot.com/article/2010/hard-wiring-athearn-blue-box-locomotives.html/
http://www.mcor-nmra.org/Publications/Articles/Athearn_TuneUp.html
Dave Nelson
I have a couple of Athearn blue box GP-9-s that have the clips. You are welcome to them if they will suit your needs. I seemed to recall that they were copper or similar but from the rus I saw on them a few minutes ago they must be steel.
Personally I think you would be much better off soldering a wire from the front tower to the motor top to the rear tower but if you want these, send me an address off line and I will snail mail them to you.
I’ve also seen the rust, so I think the steel opinion is correct.
However, before anyone starts mailing things back and forth, I’d suggest that you-all reference the Athearn diagrams on the hoseeker website (http://hoseeker.org/athearn.htm) to see if the parts are the same. Looking at one of the GP35 drawings that part is a 90586 while for the GP9 it is 90588,
I think it would be pretty safe to assume that the part of that strip that clips over the motor is the same, but there is probably a length difference from the motor to each each truck. This distance is probably minor, but then again if it made no difference one would ask why didn’t Athearn use the same item for both locos. As a minimum maybe you can compare dimensions.
Just wanted to let everyone know that the clips, after a little bit of cleaning work perfectly. Another problem has cropped up but that is another can of worms that can be easily fixed.