Have a very old version of the 36T Shay and bought new trucks to replace the originals. The instructions say to connect the black to black and red to red-logical; however, the front truck has only 2 red leads and the rear truck has only 2 black leads. Now what?? Secondly,do I use the springloaded contacts and remove the PCB board from the truck or do I use the PCB board on the truck with the leaf contacts? Obviously the newer models have a different wiring setup from the early original versions. Not sure when I bought this unit but it had to be in the 90's.
Would appreciate some info as to where do i go from here.
First off, on older Shays, colors mean nothing.
Seen all red, front and rear, all black front and rear, red painted black, red front, black rear, vice-versa, red-black front and rear but reversed.
So, this "procedure" is easier than one might think.
Remove old trucks.
Two long screws at each end under bottom cover (or, on old 8-screw trucks, center screw on each end), two short screws hidden up
inside sideframes between wheels, one per side, and that's per truck.
Lift truck off top plate, move forward to drop driveline off, rotate and
pull out of front steps.
Remove top plate with one screw and washers.
Cut wires as close to the plate as you can.
Take new top plate, strip back 1/2" of insulation on the end after slipping
a 1" or so piece of shrink-tube over the wire.
Strip back 1/2" or so on wires from locomotive.
Twist together (like a Western Union splice), solder, slide the shrink tube
over the joint, heat with a Zippo.
Mount the new part to the chassis with new screws and washers provided.
Mount truck with 2 small machine screws roughly the same location as the 2 small screws you took out on the old trucks.
Repeat at other end.
Place loco on track, hold one truck clear of rails (important!) and apply
low power.
See if all wheels on both trucks are turning in same direction, AND if the
direction follows the headlights.
To correct either or both in direction, remove offending truck, rotate top
plate 180° and re-install truck.
TOC
Many thanks. Who would've thought they'd not have color coded wires??? Regardless-that answers the questions I had.
Bill