Installing a #44914 Decoder on a #10151 motor

[JimJim]

Hello All,
I have an EMD F7A&B consist from a Bachmann #00689 Royal Gorge analog train set, equipped with #10151 motors.
To keep things simple I'm installing #44914 decoders.
In looking at the motors there are two resistors soldered to the motor.
My question is:
Do I leave the resistors on the motor and solder the motor terminals to them?
The rest of the decoder installation seems pretty straightforward.
Thank you.

[richg]

Those are molded inductors, not resistors. Check the color rings. Should be about 4.7 UH. A Google search will bring up the chart for those.
There should be a capacitor or capacitors associated with those inductors.
Most people just cut the caps and the inductors are a moot point.
You can cut those inductors if they really bother you and solder in a solid piece of wire.

Rich

[JimJim]

Hello Rich,
If I'm understand you correctly:
Option 1: I remove the capacitors; of which there are three, leave the molded inductors and solder the motor terminals (orange & gray wires) from the decoder to the molded inductors?
Option 2: I can remove all the inductors and capacitors and just solder the motor terminals (orange & gray wires) directly to the motor?
Sorry for the confusion on my part I just want to make sure I'm understand you correctly.
Thanks again.

[richg]

You can do both.

No idea which decoder or loco you have.
Some locos have a PC board with eight pin socket to plug in the decoder.
A few have a PC board with seven pins to solder the decoder wires to.

Rich

[JimJim]

Hello Rich,
These locos don't have P/C boards.
Just pickup wires from the trucks to the inducers. The F7A has a light that is hard wired to the same side of the inducers as the pickups.
The decoders are Bachmann two-function, 7-wire; w/o 8-pin plug (same as 44916 except for the plug), designed to be hard wired.
Should be a really simple conversion. Snip, snip, solder, solder, assign and run.
Thank you again for your advice.

[richg]

Hello Rich,
These locos don?t have P/C boards.
Just pickup wires from the trucks to the inducers. The F7A has a light that is hard wired to the same side of the inducers as the pickups.
The decoders are Bachmann two-function, 7-wire; w/o 8-pin plug (same as 44916 except for the plug), designed to be hard wired.
Should be a really simple conversion. Snip, snip, solder, solder, assign and run.
Thank you again for your advice.

No PC board surprises me. Most of the locos I have seen have at least a basic PC board with the headlight.
I think a few older ones had no PC board at one time.
Sounds like the loco is used and someone took out the PC board and hard wired it for DC. I assume that because of the caps and inductors.
The diagram page for this loco shows a PC board that is a decoder.

Rich

[JimJim]

Hello Rich,
I must be an anomaly.
I have two consists of Bachmann F7As & F7Bs (four powered locos; 2 F7As & 2 F7Bs) that were pulled from a "Bachmann 'HO' scale E-Z track® Train Set" Item #00689- Royal Gorge. I have an original paperwork packet from the seller that broke up the sets.
The parts list for the locos is H112X-IS001.
These are 4 screw and post mounted bodies. When I opened all four of them up they are all wired the same. Eight wheel drive, with dog-bone connectors to the motor with no flywheels.
The OEM wiring is one red and one black wire from each set of trucks. These are paired in their respective colors, then soldered to the previously discussed molded inductors with a color banding code of, if I'm reading them correctly: silver, copper, purple and yellow on a turquoise body. The silver ends are toward the motor. Hence the reason I thought they were resistors. Those are soldered to each pole of the motor.
There are three capacitors; that are numbered 103 with a dark yellow body. One capacitor bridges the two poles of the motor where the molded inductors are soldered. The others are soldered from one molded inductor to the body of the motor.
The F7As have a single light that is powered from the non-motor side of the molded inductors; black pickup to black on the bulb and red pickup to orange on the bulb.
The motor is held in a cradle that attaches to the frame with two screws through the gas tank that has the Bachmann circular logo and the words "BACHMANN MADE IN CHINA" molded into the plastic.
I tried to upload a photo but I get an error message saying, "Upload folder full."
Hope this helps.

[richg]

Ok, that explains a lot.

Thought it was common knowledge but most forums, not only Bachmann, require you to use a Photo Hosting site like Photo Bucket to post photos.

http://photobucket.com/

Choose your albums as I can get confusing with lots of photos.

Copy and paste the fourth option labeled IMG into the forum message.

Strip out the inductors and caps.

Just make sure the two motor contacts do not connect to any part of the frames.

Where are the lights mounted? I suspect they will be actual light bulbs and not LED's, but that is a guess.

Light bulbs can get quite hot with constant 12 volts from the decoder and might deform the plastic shell so check this out carefully.

Talk about being back to basics.

Rich

[JimJim]

Hello Rich,
There are V-shaped pockets cast into the noses of the frames where the bulb assembly sits, which I suspect might provide some heat sink. There is a plastic cap- -for lack of a better term- -that holds the bulb assembly loosely in place. The bulb does not contact the shell. The bulb is heat shrink-ed (shrunk?) along with the wires and slides into this mounting.
My next project will be to fit LEDs front and rear, but that's another post.
I'll keep an eye on the bulb if running for prolonged periods of time.
Once the decoders are installed I'll be able to turn off the bulbs when idle.
Thank you for all your help.

[Doneldon]

You can do both.

Rich-

Actually, he can't do both. But he can do either!

Thanks for giving this fellow some good information. He sounds like he has a genuine interest in the hobby and wants to learn. He's the sort of person we can be of real help to.
                                -- D

[richg]

Hello Rich,
There are V-shaped pockets cast into the noses of the frames where the bulb assembly sits, which I suspect might provide some heat sink. There is a plastic cap- -for lack of a better term- -that holds the bulb assembly loosely in place. The bulb does not contact the shell. The bulb is heat shrink-ed (shrunk?) along with the wires and slides into this mounting.
My next project will be to fit LEDs front and rear, but that's another post.
I'll keep an eye on the bulb if running for prolonged periods of time.
Once the decoders are installed I'll be able to turn off the bulbs when idle.
Thank you for all your help.

I think it will be ok. I have a couple 44 ronners that have the light bulbs in metal and no problems with the DCC conversion.

Rich

[JimJim]

Hello Rich,
Thank you again, huge help!
One "last" question:
What gage wire should I use?
That way I can figure out what size shrink tube to use as well.
Again, thank you

[rogertra]

Google: -

"How to install a DCC decoder"

There are lots of videos and other help which is better than any written assistance we can give here.  A picture (video) is worth a thousand words.


Cheers

Roger T.

[richg]

Hello Rich,
Thank you again, huge help!
One "last" question:
What gage wire should I use?
That way I can figure out what size shrink tube to use as well.
Again, thank you

Most use #30. I have seen #29 and 30 sold by different DCC online sites. They also sell the shrink.
If you have an old PC mouse laying around, there is wire in there you can use.
I have some #30 that has many more strands than 7 and more flexible. I have used that wire for connecting to the trucks on diesels.

Most wire for DCC is 7 strands with rubber covering. More flexible than plastic covered.

NWSL, Litchfield Station, Tony's Trains and others sell the wire and shrink.
Radio Shack is a crap shoot today for wire and shrink.

Take pictures during the conversion and post them here. The MRR community will like it.

Good luck.

Rich

[richg]

Look at and store the below link. Lots about sound but covers a lot of DCC. Lots of good info. Take your time looking around.

Bachmann locos with on board sound use SoundTraxx decoders. You just cannot get them from Bachmann.

http://www.mrdccu.com/

Rich