I have a LGB 2085D mallet. I am installing Rail Pro battery and sound. I opened up the engine and discovered each motor block has three wires. Which wire goes where?
battery installation in LGB 2085D
- Thread starter slamboard
- Start date
I would strongly recommend using a voltmeter to determine what the wires do, if you are installing.
Hint, 1 wire is exclusive to one track pickup, one exclusive to one motor lead, and one has both.
Best advice is to open the motor block and isolate the track pickup from the motor lead it is connected to.
Greg
Hint, 1 wire is exclusive to one track pickup, one exclusive to one motor lead, and one has both.
Best advice is to open the motor block and isolate the track pickup from the motor lead it is connected to.
Greg
As Greg says the early blocks used a common wire from one side to the track and motor. The other side has a wire to each hence the 3 wires. As you are doing a conversion to battery power it makes sense to change the wiring so that you are just feeding direct to the motor as you will not want your batteries feeding to the track, with a double powered chassis there may be the slight danger of shorting if the common feed to the rail is left in place.
You will need to dismantle the chassis to achieve this, be very careful not to loose the thrust bearing at the end of each motor shaft when you dismantle the chassis.
You will need to dismantle the chassis to achieve this, be very careful not to loose the thrust bearing at the end of each motor shaft when you dismantle the chassis.
Try this Massoth Wiki, it may help
www.massoth.de
Basics: Digital compatible gears – Massoth Elektronik GmbH
www.massoth.de
if that defeats you it sounds like the 2085 may be a little bit ambitious for your first conversion. You may do better with a 4 wire LGB Loco if you have one for your first battery job.
There should be places that show taking it apart. All depends on your time vs money vs ambition settings.... 
I've converted 2 2085D Mallets from the 3 -> 4 wires.
You should be fine just opening the black gearbox blocks rather than the silver and red buhler motor casing.
If I remember correctly, it's the 2 outer screw on each bogie then the bottom half, with all the wheels and motion should just come away as a unit. The parts should stay in place if you lift the loco off the bogies rather than the other way round.
The motor and the 2 idler gears can fall out at this stage, but so long as you don't lose them it's fine and obvious where they go.
If you haven't had the gearboxes apart at this before you may want to consider clearing out and replacing the old gearbox grease, which may date back to the 80s and check the idler gears are in good condition. (for the 4 Mallets I've owned I've replaced 3 gears, 1 gear had been destroyed by the worm, in a second, the gear had been replaced by a previous owner with a wrong gear, and a third gear was missing altogether)
It is not my first conversion, as I have completed 7 before. This one just threw me. I used Greg's suggestion an used a volt meter to trace the wires. I also removed the carbon brushes behind wheel. Works fine now.
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Good for you! Yes, I have Bachmann and Aristo locos, and have found weird wiring every so often. The voltmeter check helps me avoid letting the smoke out ha ha!
Greg
Greg
Do not open the motor block. I have worked on many of the 2085D LGB engines and only when converting to DCC does one need to open the motor block. The outer wires on the top of the block are the motor. The wire in between the outer wires is track only. It will not hurt anything to leave the common track/motor wire connected to the track for battery operation unless you use the track power connectors on the rear of the engine.
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