Class 26 Bogie Removal

[bigal10]

I'm in the process of reworking the innards of my Heljan 26, (like wot I did about a year ago with my Hornby 31, still unfinished on the workbench, but is now being progressed along with this Heljan 26)

 

I have binned the Heljan motherboard, in favour of a Zimo 644D mounted on an ESU 21 MTC adapter, again, like the Hornby 31, to add better lighting, including auto extinguishing cab lights, thanks again to Paul Chetter!

It also gives me loads more room for stay alive, - I know Heljans are good runners, but I reckon Bo-Bo's need a bit of help over tricky points!

 

I have also put SMD LED's in the marker positions, - I'll apologise to the rivet counters now, but I like to see the lights on my locos!

 

My question now, is how to get the bogies out, so that I can rewire them with (the correct colour) slightly thinner more flexible decoder wire.

I have flipped the top off the gearbox, and the bogie side frames, but stil can't get the bogies out. Am I right in thinking that I need to pull the motor up and out, to release the cardan shafts from the gearbox?

 

Any suggestions gratefully received,

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Alan.

[cheesysmith]

I have just had a look at my HJ 33/2, which is mechanically identical to the 26. I have taken the pick ups off the bogie after removing the side frames, by just using a screw driver. if you are just rewiring the pick ups, you should be able to rewire without removing the bogies. If you have removed the top plate off the bogie, it would just pull out without touching the motor.

[bigal10]

Cheers Cheesy,

 

I did manage to get the pickups off the bogie sides, after first removing the sideframes. 

Having already removed the top plate from the gearbox had no effect, I still could not get the bogie out, but no matter, taking the pickups off was a simple job, and allowed cleanup of the wheels, and the pickups, and then rewiring in the correct colours.

 

Just for completeness, I have subsequently abandoned the Zimo MX644D with ESU 21 MTC adapter approach, and having taken further advice from Paulibanger and one or two others, have gone for a Zimo MX645P22 and a Zimo ADAPLU adapter board, which has turned out to be a much better method.

Admittedly, the solder pads on the ADAPLU are still quite small, but not as tightly bunched as on the ESU 21 MTC board. 

Plus, the added advantage with the ADAPLU is that there are a lot more Common Positive solder pads, and sensibly placed at each end of the board, so adding connections for 6 sets of lights, in addition to separate pads for stay-alive caps is brilliant!

 

This arrangement takes up much less space than the OEM board from Heljan, or the 21-pin arrangement, and according to the experts, Zimo's plux22 offerings are quite a bit more superior to the competition!

 

Regards,

 

Alan.

[pheaton]

Heljan mount there bogies in the same way accross the range they use a piece of plastic that resembles this -O- removal is possible but its extremely difficult and this piece is very easy to break! but it can be rotated along the horizontal axis (top towards front and bottom towards motor) with the use of a flat blade screwdriver (GENTLY!!!!) which will part the bogie structure down the centreline enough to remove it in 2 halves if you have removed the top clip which you have!

 

the bogie can then be removed as said in two halves..

 

i cannot stress how much of a PAIN IN THE AR$E it is to refit that piece if it breaks..... i will go as far to say .....i found it easier to replace two traction motors on the prototype then replace that piece on the model!!!!!!!

[bigal10]

Yeah!

 

Cheers anyway Pheaton, as I said at the start of the post above, I did find it quite simple to remove the pickups, after prising the sideframes off, and all I wanted to do was replace the monochrome OEM black wires (one of which had just fallen off, like lots of fiddly things on Heljans ) with a red one, in thinner, more flexible decoder wire!

 

Job done, it all works brilliantly now !

 

Regards,

 

Alan.