I am having some problems repowering a PPW-Aline HO F40PH. I have a KATO motor with flywheels on the F40PH chassis. I can’t even get the F40PH to run at all. I would like to know if the KATO motor is not capable with the PPW-Aline chassis. I plan to put a BACHMANN (Non-SPECTRUM) HO AMTRAK F40PH shell onto the PPW-Aline chassis if I can get it to operate properly. I also have the KATO F40PH circuit board which is on top of the KATO motor. I would also like to know how to wire the KATO motor and F40PH circuit board to the PPW-Aline chassis to get it to operate. I feel that this is much better than the original BACHMANN HO F40PH mechanism. David Briel in Georgia an AMTRAK fan.
There’s nothing about the motor that would prevent it from running in any chassis, assuming it fits and the shafts are connected to the gear towers, and everything spins freely. It’s most likely a wiring issue. Have you tried applying DC directly to the motor with it disconnected from the circuit board?
You don’t need both the Kato and the Bachmann circuit boards. If you want to use the Bachmann board because of the lights, then get rid of the Kato board. Desolder the springy prongs from the Bachman board and solder 2 wires in the same places. I would cut them 3 or 4 inches long and solder those ends to the Kato motor tabs. You can shorten the top tab to about a 1/4" and the bottom tab so it stops about half-way up the side of the motor. Solder those wire to the ends of those tabs. Near those first 2 wires on the Bachmann board solder another 2 wires, these are for track/wheel pick-up. If you are using Athearn trucks, you’ll notice little brass rivets near the top of the side of each truck, solder a wire to one rivet on each side of each truck, install the trucks, fish the wires up thru the frame, connect the right side wires together, repeat for the left side. Take the second set of wires from the Bachmann board and connect one to the right side and one to the left.Test run the engine to see if goes in the correct direction, if not, reverse the wires going to the motor. Now tidy up all the wires so they don’t interfere with the flywheels. Use heat shrink tubing for all soldered connections (Radio Shack). Be sure to insolate the bottom tab of the motor from the PPW frame with at least a bit of electrical tape. You can use some double sided foam tape to mount the motor to the frame. That’s about it. Have fun![:)]
Matching up the drive shafts between the trucks and the flywheels is a whole other issue, come back and ask some more if you get stuck there.
I do not have a BACHMANN F40PH circuit board, just the KATO one. My HO F40PH is a BACHMANN shell on a PPW-Aline chassis with a KATO motor and circuit board. David Briel