141/181 Body removal

[Portoman]

I have 3 141/181's which I want to convert to DCC. I need help with the body removal. Is it straightforward? I read somewhere that its not user friendly! Another question regarding conversion. What type of chip? Whats diferrence between 9 and 21 pin? Is it functionality?Thanks

[Portoman]

I found a link for this on another website - Hope it works -Here is the link

http://www.bachmann.co.uk/pdfs/mm_141_181.pdf

[heirflick]

dont forget to loosen the hand rails attached to the cabs first....you dont want to break those delecate little buggers!

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

You will need a 21pin decoder. Or you can use a 21 pin to 8 pin converter

[irishthump]

The body can be a bugger to remove as you have to be able to exert enough pressure on the sides of the body. The best way to do this is to remove the handrails which I found to be a nightmare!

An easier method for me was to turn the loco over and if you turn the bogies out of the way you can pop the tabs on the body with a small screwdriver.

[The Train Man]

1. Remove hand rails from Cabs.

2. Remove Cab futherst from fan by gently lifting straight off

3. Firmly squeeze middle of loco body and lift straight off (fan end cab remains attached to body)

[djkonore]

It's really easy this way; remove the ends of the railings attached to the cabs only. Leave the rest of the railings in place. They don't need to be removed!!! Lift the non-radiator end cab straight up - you might need to pry it up slightly with a small screw driver away from the body. Then get your finger under the body shell roof (now that the cab is off) and just lift it straight up. Again you can use a screw driver to lever the body up for more control. The body and remaining cab will come up together because they are attached by a blanking plate underneath the roof radiator. This method is really easy and fast. I've done it loads of times with no damage at all and don't have to remove the railings. Works every time I guarantee it!

[Tarabuses]

You just have to take a deep breath and do it - no hessitation. It will work if you follow the advice above and ensure the handrails are disconnected from the cabs.

[murphaph]

On 3/11/2012 at 1:54 PM, djkonore said:

It's really easy this way; remove the ends of the railings attached to the cabs only. Leave the rest of the railings in place. They don't need to be removed!!! Lift the non-radiator end cab straight up - you might need to pry it up slightly with a small screw driver away from the body. Then get your finger under the body shell roof (now that the cab is off) and just lift it straight up. Again you can use a screw driver to lever the body up for more control. The body and remaining cab will come up together because they are attached by a blanking plate underneath the roof radiator. This method is really easy and fast. I've done it loads of times with no damage at all and don't have to remove the railings. Works every time I guarantee it!

Lifesaver. First time opening one of these tonight. This is easy this way.

[Rob]

Good luck!   I was never brave enough to try myself-  got an expert to do it before!! 

[irishthump]

40 minutes ago, murphaph said:

Lifesaver. First time opening one of these tonight. This is easy this way.

Yep. Don’t know why some people insist on removing the handrails first. Probably just to prove they CAN do it!

[murphaph]

Yeah I had no deep seated desire to go down that road and there's clearly no reason to. Cab straight off and then fingernail under the body gives enough purchase to pull it off. Squeezing the body just seems to anger it lol.

Edited November 20, 2020 by murphaph

[irishthump]

10 minutes ago, murphaph said:

Yeah I had no deep seated desire to go down that road and there's clearly no reason to. Cab straight off and then fingernail under the body gives enough purchase to pull it off. Squeezing the body just seems to anger it lol.

Yes that’s exactly it! Lever the body up rather than pinching it which really doesn’t work. 
Problem with the handrails is that some of the posts are friction fit but some of them clearly ended up needing to be glued in. Best avoided at all costs!

[Noel]

What they said above. Its a 3min job, most of which is soldering speaker wires to the PCB. I use wooden stick to lever it off, sometimes with the help of a very thin flat screwdriver to get between the body sides and the walkway surface. I don't remove the walkway rails, just unclip the ends from both cabs

 

Speaker installation. I prefer to wire the speaker to the loco rather than from the decoder. 141/181s have a speaker cradle that will take a standard 20x40mm speaker rather than a sugarcane speaker.

 

 

 

 

 

[murphaph]

Cheers. I've a few iPhone speakers here. Gonna try squeezing one of those in first rather than buying new ones. 

[irishthump]

53 minutes ago, murphaph said:

Cheers. I've a few iPhone speakers here. Gonna try squeezing one of those in first rather than buying new ones. 

Which type are they? A small sugar cube will also fit if you remove the speaker cradle.

[murphaph]

I'm not sure. I think 6s ones but they were cut down a bit by roads and rails before headshrinking them together.

[murphaph]

So I had to remove the heatshrink as applied by Roads and Rails to their double iPhone speaker assemblies (you can surely make these cheaper yourself by the way, I was just being lazy when I ordered them):

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254366688403

I also removed the grey blanking plate under the rooftop grille to let the sound out. The side grilles are slush with the chassis so I was sceptical as to how much sound would escape through them. I noticed when re-assembling that the cab is not really clued to the body at the correct height (radiator end). If you push the cab down tighter to the footplate the body tips up. It's not the speaker, there's enough clearance there and it happens if I reverse the body shell so the radiator grilles are at the wrong end also. Someday I'll have to prise apart the cab from body and glue it correctly.

I'm perfectly happy with the sound. It's good enough anyway. These are 8 Ohm speakers but as there are two in parallel the impedance as seen by the loco is a nice 4 Ohms which I believe is the best match for the output stage of the amplifier.

The file is from the ESU library, the only 8-567CR Loksound 5 Full Throttle project they have in there I think. I just replaced the horns with the ones from the 071/201.

I have to take a closer look at the circuitry of the baby GM and see what can really be controlled independently and what needs rewiring. I will certainly be adding cab lighting and the ability to run without the headlights and ideally the ability to turn off the red marker lights when not running light engine as I did with the 201s. I suspect it'll be trickier here as space really is at a premium in these guys.

 

[murphaph]

And to give something back to the thread...

If you remove the PCB as I did (because a pickup solder joint on the underside of the board had broken) you should note that the 3 little black screws holding the PCB in place are not identical. The one at the radiator end has a different thread. Very easy to miss.