chopperaddict

I need to respond and thank both Dutch_Master and John ks for their useful input as above. As far as the soldering iron is concerned, I really thought I was being rather clever in getting my little 6W soldering iron for work on Arduino electronic projects, and for these sorts of jobs, how dumb can you be ! I already have both a 25W and a 40W iron, using the 40W for track joints, and the 25W for smaller work, but firmly believed that the less wattage, the better it would be, so I have certainly learned something today - Thanks for that. As far as reusing the backplate, I did indeed go some way down that path, by trying to scrape the material off the lead on both sides of the plate, but could not get to anything that resembled a trace I could solder to. However, I did not follow that train of thought along further as John_ts has done so well. I believe that is because I am still cautious about the decoders being burnt up due to a faulty ground somewhere. To complete this saga, I will try your suggestions in terms of soldering direct to the brush retainer caps, which to me offer the most obvious contact position without damaging anything. From what I "think I know" I just have to ensure that any part of the PCB that links to ground (via the chassis etc,) is totally insulated from those 2 brushes, but I can still connect the Red or Black wire to those ground points ???

Sadly while trying to reconnect the orange wire, and despite using a very small 6W battery operated soldering iron,I still managed to burn the trace off the top connection - Grrrrrrrr. Luckily I found a new motor plate (00504741) for sale from the German Ebay site, and although I felt it was overly expensive (12.99 Euros plus an extravagant 17 Euros P&P) it has arrived and I will be fitting it tomorrow, taking even more care with the soldering iron. These really fine traces are bitches to solder. I am sure the manufacturers could do better in this area ? Hopefully the damn thing will work as advertised after all this grief !

Wow, it seems everyone but me knows how these things are wired :-) Many thanks people, that is exactly the info I wanted. I was going to guess on orange at top, but hate the idea of cooking something. Off to the workshop to complete the reassembly, and yes I totally agree about watching solder joints, the tracks are very thin and close together. Hopefully will get her running and hear the sound she produces later today - Wheeeeeeeee...

I recently purchased the above loco from eBay .I wanted to check the chip and sound installation which it came with, but on managing to get the casing off, I managed to pull the grey and orange wires off the motr, because the wiring is VERY short if the motor bogie comes out first, as happened for me.. I had eye balled it and only saw the grey, black and red wire positions. The point where the grey wire was connected is on the middle of a set of 3 small bars, but the orange wire must have already been off, so I am guessing that it also goes to one of those 3, the outer or inner ones ? I do not want t just solder it on to one and put it on the track in case it blows the decoder., so would be very grateful for any guidance on this ? photo of motor as it is now attached. Ian